Commentary on the Gospel of
After spending the night in the hills in prayer Jesus chooses twelve Apostles, twelve very ordinary, insignificant men to be with him, to learn from him, to pray with him, to follow him and finally, for eleven of them, to spread the good news of the Kingdom, costing them everything they have and are.
For Jesus this is a very significant moment; it is the beginning of his own community, a community who will learn from him so as to carry on his work when he has returned to his Father. This will be a challenging task as each one discovers his own gifts and is confronted by his weaknesses and limitations; each will struggle with his own difficulties and will have to learn to make Christ his whole life.
That teaching begins as Jesus brings his Apostles down from the hills to level ground, to stand with feet firmly on the ground where the ordinary people from all over the region are waiting. They are longing to hear his teaching but are most desperate to be healed and, as if to alert the Apostles to what lies ahead, Jesus cures all sorts of diseases of the mind and body; indeed so much does power come from him that all were cured!
What a start for the young men of Galilee! Small wonder that Paul exhorts the Colossians and all prospective disciples, with these words from to-day’s first reading: “You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received- Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.” Col.2 6 -7
