GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 28 OCTOBER, ST SIMON AND ST JUDE, APOSTLES

Luke 6:12-19.  When we consider the calling of his disciples, we recall what Jesus said in John’s gospel (15:16), “you did not choose me but I chose you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last ….”  Disciples are first called by Jesus -- he takes the initiative.  That call may not be a loud yell, but come as a still small voice, unlike that of the first disciples who were asked by him face to face.  We must beware of those who claim to be disciples but did so on their own initiative.  Disciples are called for a purpose not of their own making – ‘go and bear fruit.’  Go and participate in the growth and abundance of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus’ twelve disciples were given major vocations to accomplish this purpose, with an immense effect.  We may not be called in such a remarkable way, but we ARE called, and we are called to participate in the growth and abundance of the Kingdom too – the growth and abundance of the Kingdom within our hearts and in our action as a call to holiness of life.

Jesus chose his first disciples as friends as John’s gospel (15:15) tells us, ‘I call you not as servants but as friends; everything I have learned from the Father I make known to you.’  It is essential to the faith of disciples that were friends to God in Christ, and that we LEARN from him.

Jesus chose his disciples as apostles, ‘those who are sent out’ with a mission a purpose.  Christian disciples cannot lack a purpose in life, and that purpose is one to which we are called, not one we choose on our own without a calling to do so.

We note that Jesus’ first disciples were very ordinary people – people like us – and  they became remarkable only in that they followed their calling and purpose faithfully.  And they were a strange mixture of characters.  Matthew was a tax collector, in some ways a traitor and renegade who served the oppressive Romans, and Simon was a fanatical zealot; the others were ordinary workers and fishermen.  It is only by their common calling and allegiance to Jesus that they could