Saints Simon and Jude, apostles
Br. José Romero, L.C.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ, our King, Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Lord, help me know you more and more, and thus only show you to others.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 6:12-19
By that time, Jesus withdrew to the mountain to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
When day broke, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, naming them apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor.
As he came down from the mountain with his disciples and apostles, he stopped on a plain. There was a great crowd of people, who had come from Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were tormented by unclean spirits were healed. All the people tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
To be recognized for who we are or praised for what we do is a natural desire we all have. Sometimes, when we finish something, we may wish to be congratulated, to be recognized by everyone, but in the case of the apostles, things are a bit different. In today's Gospel, we can see the paradox of the Christian mission.
Today we see how Christ calls his apostles, only twelve out of all his disciples; only twelve are called to be in a special way with the Lord, and all the others know it, all the others, even, recognize it. But practically immediately we see in the Gospel that Christ comes down from the mountain with everyone and stops on the plain to be with the people, and we find phrases that show us that people only came for Jesus, that they only wanted to touch Him. It would seem that being recently appointed as one of the twelve has no importance, or perhaps no one really recognizes the importance of being one of the apostles.
But what we really see is the reflection of what it means to be a true apostle. A true apostle does not seek recognition, does not seek for people to see him and go to him; a true apostle only does what he must do so that people see Christ, so that they come to him because they have heard about Jesus, so that they go to mass because they wish to touch Christ, not because of me, not because of us. The paradox of the Christian mission is that I only know if my work is going well when others only see Christ.
Although the desire to be recognized for what we do is natural in us, we cannot let it take us away from our mission, which is to show Christ. Let us be true apostles and show the Lord; let our mission solely be to show the heart of Christ, that in our daily lives we show the Lord.
«We have not been to Mount Tabor, nor have we seen with our own eyes the face of Jesus shining like the sun. Nevertheless, the Word of salvation has been given to us too, we have been given faith, and we have experienced the joy of encountering Jesus in different ways. Jesus also tells us: “Get up, do not be afraid.” In this world, marked by selfishness and greed, God's light is obscured by the worries of daily life. We often say: I don't have time to pray, I can't do service in the parish, respond to the requests of others... But we must not forget that the Baptism we received made us witnesses, not by our ability, but by the gift of the Spirit.»
(Homily of H.H. Francis, March 8, 2020).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
Perform an act of charity in secret (so that no one sees me) with the intention of only showing Christ.
Farewell
We thank You, Lord, for all Your benefits, You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
