From: Luke 6:12-16

The Calling of the Apostles

[12] In these days He (Jesus) went out into the hills to pray; and all night He con-
tinued in prayer to God. [13] And when it was day, He called His disciples, and
chose from them twelve, whom He named Apostles: [14] Simon, whom He named
Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew,
[15] and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who
was called the Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who
became a traitor.

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Commentary:

12-13. The evangelist writes with a certain formality when describing this impor-
tant occasion on which Jesus chooses the Twelve, constitu- ting them as the
apostolic college: “The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length to the Father, called
to Himself those whom He willed and ap- pointed twelve to be with Him, whom
He might send to preach the Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 2:13-19; Matthew 10:
1-42). These Apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) He constituted in the form of a college or
permanent assembly, at the head of which He placed Peter, chosen from among
them (cf. John 21:15-17). He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and
then to all peoples (cf. Romans 1:16), so that, sharing in His power,they might
make all peoples His disciples and sanctify and govern them (cf. Matthew 28:
16-20; and par.) and thus spread the Church and, administering it under the
guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days until the end of the world (cf. Matthew
28:20). They were fully confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf.
Act 2:1-26) [...]. Through their preaching the Gospel everywhere (cf. Mark 16:20),
and through its being welcomed and received under the influence of the Holy Spi-
rit by those who hear it, the Apostles gather together the universal Church, which
the Lord founded upon the Apostles and built upon Blessed Peter their leader,
the chief cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself (cf. Reve- lation 21:14; Matthew
16:18; Ephesians 2:20). That divine mission, which was committed by Christ to
the Apostles, is destined to last until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20),
since the Gospel, which they were charged to hand on, is, for the Church, the
principle of all its life for all time. For that very reason the Apostles were careful
to appoint successors in this hierarchically constituted society” (Vatican II,
“Lumen Gentium”, 19-20).

Before establishing the apostolic college, Jesus spent the whole night in prayer.
He often made special prayer for His Church (Luke 9:18; John 17:1ff), thereby
preparing His Apostles to be its pillars (cf. Galatians 2:9). As His Passion ap-
proaches, He will pray to the Father for Simon Peter, the head of the Church,
and solemnly tell Peter that He has done so: “But I have prayed for you that
your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). Following Christ’s example, the Church
stipulates that on many occasions liturgical prayer should be offered for the
pastors of the Church (the Pope, the bishops in general, and priests) asking
God to give them grace to fulfill their ministry faithfully.

Christ is continually teaching us that we need to pray always (Luke 18:1). Here
He shows us by His example that we should pray with special intensity at impor-
tant moments in our lives. “`Pernoctans in oratione Dei. He spent the whole
night in prayer to God.’ So St. Luke tells of our Lord. And you? How often have
you persevered like that? Well, then....” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 104).

On the need for prayer and the qualities our prayer should have, see the notes on
Matthew 6:5-6; 7:7-11; 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 11:1-4; 22:41-42.

12. Since Jesus is God, why does He pray? There were two wills in Christ, one
divine and one human (cf. “St. Pius X Catechism”, 91), and although by virtue of
His divine will He was omnipotent, His human will was not omnipotent. When we
pray, what we do is make our will known to God; therefore Christ, who is like us
in all things but sin (Hebrews 4:15), also had to pray in a human way (cf. “Sum-
ma Theologiae”, III, q. 21, a. 1). Reflecting on Jesus at prayer, St. Ambrose
comments: “The Lord prays not to ask things for Himself, but to intercede on my
behalf; for although the Father has put everything into the hands of the Son, still
the Son, in order to behave in accordance with His condition as man, considers
it appropriate to implore the Father for our sake, for He is our Advocate [...]. A
Master of obedience, by His example He instructs us concerning the precepts
of virtue: `We have an advocate with the Father’ (1 John 2:1)” (”Expositio Evan-
gelii sec. Lucam, in loc.”).

14-16. Jesus chose for Apostles very ordinary people, most of them poor and
uneducated; apparently only Matthew and the brothers James and John had so-
cial positions of any consequence. But all of them gave up whatever they had,
little or much as it was, and all of them, bar Judas, put their faith in the Lord,
overcame their shortcomings and eventually proved faithful to grace and became
saints, veritable pillars of the Church. We should not feel uneasy when we realize
that we too are low in human qualities; what matters is being faithful to the grace
God gives us.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

First reading

Ephesians 2:19-22 ©

You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.

Psalm

Psalm 18:2-5 ©

Their word goes forth through all the earth.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God,

and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.

Day unto day takes up the story

and night unto night makes known the message.

Their word goes forth through all the earth.

No speech, no word, no voice is heard

yet their span extends through all the earth,

their words to the utmost bounds of the world.

Their word goes forth through all the earth.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Te Deum

Alleluia, alleluia!

We praise you, O God,

we acknowledge you to be the Lord.

The glorious company of the apostles praise you, O Lord.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.