Roster of Apostles

Tuesday,
September 12, 2017
23rd Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Col 2:6-15
Gospel: Luke 6:12-19
Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.
Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood on a level place. Many of his disciples were there and a large crowd of people who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear him and be healed of their diseases; likewise people troubled by evil spirits were healed. All the crowd tried to touch him because of the power which went out from him and healed them all.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Luke lists down the names of the Twelve Apostles and describes briefly some of them. He describes Simon as the person whom Jesus renamed Peter. Another Simon is described as the Zealot Party member – a political party opposing the Roman rule. Finally he describes Judas as the traitor. These descriptions have gone down history lanes up to our time. Judas will always lend his name to all traitors of all generations. “Quod scripsit, scripsit” What is written it is written (John 19:22).
If the Gospel were to record our performance as Christians, will we get a generous description? Of course no Gospel will be written about us. But God is watching and he sees what we do and knows what we think and feel. If God were to make a roster of his children and include a brief description of each, what kind of description will we get? If even a just man falls seven times a day, what generous description could we get? “If you, O Lord, should mark our iniquities, who could endure it?” (Psalm 130:3).
Blessed be God who does not keep a record of our offenses. When God forgives he forgets. Unlike the human heart that keeps only a record of wrongdoings of others, God’s memory has room only for the good we do. But this is no license to allow our left hand to do bad even as our right hand does good things. The danger with duplicity is hypocrisy – a vice hated so much by the Lord (Rev. 3:15). This was the problem of Judas. His right hand was praising Jesus as Lord while his left hand was pilfering from the group’s purse. At the end of the day he got a description he deserved: “Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor”. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM
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