Saints Simon & Jude | Wednesday 28 October 2020

Today is Wednesday the 28 October, the feast of Saints Simon and Jude, in the 30th week of Ordinary Time.  

The monks of Pluscarden Abbey sing: ’I have chosen you out of the world, so that you might go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.’ As I listen to this chant, I remind myself that God calls me, calls me by my name. However unsuitable or unworthy I may think I am, God has chosen me.  

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke.  

Luke 6:12-19  

Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.   He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.    

Jesus has a significant decision to make : choosing from his followers twelve apostles who will accompany him on his journey of teaching, of healing .... and of suffering.  In preparation it seems, he spends the night in prayer to God his Father, in the soothing calm of nature.  Can you picture this scene on the mountain?  Can you place yourself in the scene?   

Watch as Jesus chooses the apostles.  What do you notice about them?   Look at their faces.  How do they react?  What is your reaction to them?  

Can you allow yourself to be chosen?   How does that feel?  Stay with those feelings for a while.  

As you listen to the reading again watch Jesus as he moves quite strategically from a place of deep prayer to making brave choices and then to the scene of vibrant action...   

As this time of prayer comes to a close, talk to God about whatever is on your heart.  

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.