The Gospel Proclamation He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, .... And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons. So he appointed the twelve.....
Prayerful Awareness The appointment of the apostles was preceded by Jesus’ ministering in Galilee to a very large gathering of people, mostly Jews from all the surrounding areas, including far away places. All of them witnessed His charisma and how He cured the sick and the afflicted. He was also trying hard to restrain the unclean spirits testifying to His Sonship. With this as the back drop He went up a mountain and summoned out of that crowd only those whom He wanted and they followed Him. His summoning them was with a certain degree of authority which prevented others joining in going to the mountain. A mountain often signified something solemn or holy. He preached His Beatitudes on a mountain and above all His Transfiguration occurred on a mountain. He very often went up a mountain for His prayers. Similarly this instance of summoning those whom He wanted to a mountain was for a historic and a solemn event of appointing the twelve apostles to continue His messianic mission to cover the entire world. In the early church these twelve enjoyed a privileged position starting with the Last Supper with Jesus being limited only to them. It was also their lot that except for one out of the twelve, all others had to sacrifice their lives following on the foot steps of Jesus. Luke in his report on the appointment of the apostles has stated that Jesus went to a mountain to pray and was in prayer the whole night. Then only He has called the twelve for this solemn occasion. Here is an indication of His thinking on this matter. He has treated the choice and the appointment of these twelve as most important and seeked the guidance of the Father in a whole night long dialogue with Him. In a few instances Jesus has hinted that all what He will do is going to be what He could see the Father is doing or what the Father tells Him to do. Accordingly it will be correct to say that the choice of the twelve apostles was really done by the Father for the Son. Even the selection of Judas who betrayed Jesus was to accomplish the divine plan, but by exercising his own free will by Judas.
Prayer Starter Have we ever had a calling from God? I think all of us have to reply in the affirmative. He has called all of us to sanctify this world. It may be for a married life to raise a family, to bring forth children for the Kingdom of God or for an unmarried religious life. Whatever the line of calling we have accepted, most of us have gone through that solemn moment of saying “Yes I do”. Most of the apostles have laid down their lives in the fulfilment of this calling. Have we at least laid off some of our unjustifiable desires to enable us to answer our calling fervently and more effectively. O Holy Spirit You strengthened the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Strengthen us the same way.
