GOSPEL POWER l SEPTEMBER 7, 2021 l TUESDAY

23rd Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Lk 6:12-19 

 12Jesus went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night  in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and  chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14Simon, whom  he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and  Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son  of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas son  of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 17He 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. 18They had come to hear  him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled  with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to  touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

 Biblical encounters with the divine very often took place  on the mountain. Thus, going up the mountain can  be interpreted as entering into the sphere of God. Jesus,  although unceasingly in the presence of God, is nevertheless  portrayed as going up the mountain. In choosing the twelve apostles,  he does not descend, but rather, he calls them to himself up on the  mountain, thus drawing them into the sphere of God. No one can  participate in the mission of Jesus and become an instrument for the  accomplishment of God’s purposes unless drawn first into the sphere  of God. Lord Jesus, draw us into the sphere of God and grant that our lives, too,  may become useful instruments for the fulfillment of the divine purposes.  Amen