July 12, 2017

Gospel: Mt 10:1-7
Jesus called his Twelve disciples to him, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to heal every disease and sickness.
These are the names of the Twelve apostles: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray him.
Jesus sent these Twelve on mission, with the instructions: “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go, instead, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel.
Go, and proclaim this message: The kingdom of heaven is near.

REFLECTION:
To guarantee success in the realization of their vision and goals, people in the corporate world are quite careful with their choice of officers, the people who comprise the “core-group“ of their companies. More often than not they are “the best and the brightest“ who make it to the list. Jesus’ choice of disciples who would constitute the pillars of the Church is thus a big puzzle. It is definitely not a group of professionals with impressive resumes. The opposite is true. He chose ordinary citizens to carry out the toughest mission in history–the proclamation of the Good News about the Kingdom of God. Most of them were simple fishermen. One was Simon, a troublemaker. Matthew was perceived by many as a corrupt tax collector. This is one way of saying that evangelization is primarily the work of God. But he allows ordinary people like you and me to participate in this important task. This is his way of acknowledging the value of whatever little contribution we can give to advance the cause of the Kingdom.