Oct. 28, 2022 – Ephesians 2:19-22; Psalm 18; Luke 6:12-19
In the first reading, which comes from the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul speaks to the Gentiles who have become Christians. So he tells them that “they are no longer strangers and foreigners” but are now “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the family of God.” The ‘saints’ (hagioi) means precisely ‘separate people who are different,’ and is a term used by Paul to speak of members of Christian communities. Here he is saying that the baptized Gentiles now belong fully to that family. Paul also sees the Church as an edifice whose foundation is the Apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the headstone. The whole structure then becomes a “holy temple in the Lord.” This is the New Testament Temple, replacing the Old Testament one in Jerusalem (although when the Epistle was written that temple still existed). “In him you are built in this temple, to become the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Thus, it is not the church building that makes us holy, but it is we who make the church building holy by our presence in it.
The Gospel reading, taken from Luke, describes Jesus choosing his twelve apostles. As happens regularly in Luke, Jesus is shown praying before any important action or decision. Luke tells us that Jesus went to the mountain to pray and spent the whole night in communion with his Father.
Luke speaks of the “mountain,” although we do not know which one it is. But in Scripture, generally mountains are holy places where one can most easily commune with God. Famous mountains in Scripture are Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke face to face with God, and Mount Carmel associated with the prophet Elijah, not to mention Mount Zion where the Temple in Jerusalem was located. There is also the Mount of Transfiguration, although it is still not certain which mount is being referred to.
It is typical of the Gospels, particularly Luke, Jesus praying. Here it has a definite meaning: there is an important choice to be made, as at other times when there are gestures, strong words, Jesus communes with the Father and asks to act, to do His will at every moment, and now He asks to choose the apostles in the same Spirit. It is not a moment, it is not a few words (Lord, give me this grace, let me choose well …) or a candle lit before
a statue, it is a long time, the whole night (after all, we are always in the night), that is, a continuous prayer. It is an invitation to take even long times for prayer, not forgetting, however, that we are called to ‘be a walking prayer. “He chose twelve, to whom he also gave the names of apostles: Simon, to whom he also gave the name Peter, Andrew,…” Twelve to mean continuity with the people of Israel, but absolute newness in following Him, in continuing His work of caring, healing, giving life in friendship to all, in proclaiming the fundamental message, a God His Father and therefore Father of all humans, a God of mercy, close, walking with us, hand in hand,
that all may have life and joy, Peace, Shalom. And the Apostles, sometimes limping or not seeing clearly, will succeed personally and as ‘church,’ assembly, people of God, to follow him, to carry his message everywhere. It really took all night prayer for men so different in character, in temperament, rough fishermen and refined seeker-conservative like John, public sinner like Matthew, probably Pharisees and Zealots to be able to stand together, ‘one body in different limbs.’
And this is to tell us that the Church is both holy and sinful, not an NGO or a club of exceptional and good men, but the most fascinating and shattering experience of communion one can have. “The whole crowd was trying to touch him, for out of him came a power that healed everyone.” The evangelist Luke tries to say here the mystery of ‘energy’ of healing, of beneficial influence on all people that emanated from the person of Jesus. There is this wanting to ‘touch’ Him (even just the flap of the cloak or Thomas wanting to touch the risen One) that is important, but there is also a touching Him in hearing His Word, in trusting Him without ‘seeing’ Him; and there is a touching Him today in the ‘poor,’ the imprisoned, the hungry for bread and love, the different and foreign, and there is a touching Him in the Lectio divina, in the Eucharist, in the trust-faith that saves, because from Him comes a power that heals all.
The Feast of the Apostles gives us an opportunity to become more aware of the two indispensable dimensions of the Church, which is the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit, and cannot be one without the other.

Judas, also called “Thaddeus”
Judas, also called “Thaddeus” (meaning “magnanimous”) or “Lebbeus” (“brave”) is namesake of the traitor, brother of St. James the Less and therefore a close relative of Jesus. He is mentioned in Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:16 and Acts of the Apostles 1:13, but nothing is known about his apostleship. At the Last Supper he asked the Lord for an explanation of his manifestation, and the Lord replied, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my Word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.” If Nicephorus Callistus is to be believed, Judas would have preached the gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumea, Syria and Mesopotamia, and suffered martyrdom in Emessa. Some writers have confused him with the disciple Addai. Today he is venerated as the patron saint of hopeless cases.
SAINT SIMON, PATRON OF FISHERMEN
St. Simon, nicknamed “Zealot” by Luke (meaning “fervent, law-abiding,” but he may be so named because he had militated in the anti-Roman group of Zealots), is called “Canaanite” by Matthew and Mark. He is the patron saint of fishermen, and there is some dispute as to whether he is one of the Lord’s “brothers”: the order of the catalogs of the apostles, where Simon figures among the brothers James the Lesser and Thaddeus, or after them, before the betrayer, would suggest so.
More generally, according to the various traditions, Simon would have been a bishop first in Jerusalem and then in Pella, or he would have evangelized Samaria and died a martyr’s death and been buried in Persia.