I love the fact that today is a feast day of not just one apostle, but two – Simon and Jude – According to the Scriptures (LK 6: 12-16), a zealot and the son of James, respectively. Jesus had spent the whole night in prayer on the mountain, ostensibly in discernment about whom he would choose to name as Apostles. In the morning, he came down from the mountain and chose twelve. Twelve was very significant number for the Jewish people, as it represented the twelve tribes of Israel. It was a number that seems to symbolize fullness, election, and endearment. God’s chosen people translates into Jesus’ chosen apostles. If we see this election or beloved chosen-ness as being symbolized in the choosing of the twelve, it could be that it’s not so much about being left out, but rather it’s about being included in the unique mission that the twelve, indeed all of us, have in bringing the Christ into the world.
Who does Jesus choose? Well, Simon and Jude, and 10 others. What if it is really everybody? It seems that to the extent that we allow ourselves to get to “know” Jesus, really know him, and discover him to be the embodied Christ in our world, we also realize that we are “chosen.” Why would it be odd to think that God is seeking out all of us to do or be that one special spark of life that has a unique contribution in order to build up all the rest?
Paul says this quite eloquently in his letter to the Ephesians (EPH 2: 19-22):
“Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
It seems that we just cannot seem to grasp that wonderful but unfortunately sometimes hard-to-believe notion that “I am chosen,” and that “I” is also a “we.” We grow into our beautifully unique person only by and through EACH other. It is our relationships to each other that “create” us into Who we are, so to speak, “called” to be!
In the Western culture, many times we operate completely contrary to this. We erroneously believe and therefore act in ways where we must become “individuals,” which means to exclude others. Our culture has disavowed the necessary community which is the context for true growth in personhood. The funny and sad thing about this is that it happens anyway. We still form each other whether we realize it or not. The dark side is that when we don’t realize it, and we think we must isolate ourselves or put up walls of protection, we are forming (in a harmful way) others as well. Someone is rejected, alone, violated, oppressed, and it is directly related to the attitudes and actions of others. And the “others” are us.
Although it may be true that there are critically formative years in our childhoods, the “formation” does not stop there. This is the good news! We can continue to “form” each other. We can do this in ways of oppression or in ways of freedom. There is always hope. Destructive patterns can be replaced with creative loving and caring born out of compassion, when we entertain the idea – that perhaps odd notion – that we are all crucial to the well-being of this world, this universe, this Life!
Can we begin to Listen to God calling us, by listening to each other, not just hearing what we have been programmed to hear perhaps all our lives? It is simple, yet so difficult. It seems risky because it may feel uncomfortable. Listening is a way of leaning into life that validates the journey that you are on by seeing and eventually embracing those that are on the SAME journey! It’s like being stuck in traffic and checking a knee-jerk reaction of impatience and intolerance, and even “get-outta-my-way” road rage, and perhaps replacing it with just a breath of ‘there’s someONE in that car ahead of me who has a life, who is trying to “get somewhere” TOO!’ We might even be heading to the same place.
What if God really is Love? This means that if we are sustained by this Divine embrace, then we are “in” Love! If we somehow begin to see this, and nudge each other gently into this realization, then, as Paul says, “You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but…fellow citizens…and members of the household of God.” Could the lies that we try to hold onto then begin to crumble? Could then we begin to heal the diseases of racism, elitism, sexism, prejudice in all their forms?
When Christ Jesus comes down the mountain, as the “capstone, he chooses Simon, Jude, John, Mary, Martha, me, and you to be part of this Love, which is Unity, but even more so Community! It may be odd to consider this, but God needs us because Love has to flow, and as Paul tells the Ephesians, we “also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” God wants to “live” in each one of us together, as uniqueness created in community! We are Citizens in Christ, all of us, chosen in Love to live the Fullness of God by listening to God’s unique voice within each of us!
Peace
Thomas