He called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve

28 OCTOBER (Lk 6,12-19)

Moses is tired. He can no longer bear alone the children of Israel on his shoulders. The Lord comes to the rescue. He puts next to him other seventymen who share with him the whole yoke of the people on his journey to the promised land. History must always be redeemed, saved. The Lord itseverlasting Saviour and Redeemer.

When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the Lord became very angry, he was grieved. “Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the Lord. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers? Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, ‘Give us meat for our food.’ I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, men you know for true elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the meeting tent. When they are in place beside you, I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.

So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around the tent. The Lord then came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied. Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; yet the spirit came to rest on them also, and they prophesied in the camp. So, when a young man quickly told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,” Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “Moses, my lord, stop them.” But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” Then Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel (Cf. Num 11,1-35).

Jesus is not tired. He is the Strong, he is the Lord. He must show all the love of the Father until the end. We know that He loved until pouring his lastdrop of blood. However, Jesus is wise, infinitely learned, divinely wise, cautious and intelligent. He knows that the world is vast, enormous. He knows that history is long, very long. He knows that he must save the whole world and that his stay in his body of flesh is short, very short. In a long night ofprayer, he consults the Father who shows him the people to be associated with his ministry. What in Moses is a fruit of bitterness, in Jesus is the fruit of knowledge, wisdom and intelligence in the Holy Spirit.

In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

If only we had the bitterness and weariness of Moses along with his awareness that the world needs true leaders! The Lord would immediatelyintervene to give us effective aid to carry out of our mission. Instead, we are often abulic, apathetic, without any spiritual depth. It is the death of our mission.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, resurrect us in the mission.