Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Having just begun St Luke’s gospel for our weekday readings, we are taken back to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. The news of him spread quickly. And it seems just as quickly suspicions arose. On the one hand, some were spellbound—“here is one who speaks with authority”—while others felt threatened. Jesus was not deterred by this. He visited the synagogue. He cured a man with a withered hand; cast out a demon; and cured Peter’s mother-in-law. All of this drew a crowd of would-be followers. And Jesus kept moving forward.

Today a familiar account – he chose the Twelve. In Mark’s gospel, we read that he “chose twelve apostles to be with him and to send them out.” To ‘be with’ and to ‘be sent out.’ Such is the life of those who followed Jesus most closely. To be with means to be instructed, to learn from the master’s words, and to sit at the feet of the master. In time, they would be sent out. But not just yet. They had much to learn and absorb, all the while growing in their understanding of who he was.

Listening, learning, discerning, acting. That is really the path we all follow in many things, but certainly in our faith life. It calls for a certain docility, to be humble enough to hear and profit from the wisdom of another—in this case, Jesus himself.

Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB