Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Jesus himself did not undertake anything important in his life without first spending time with his Father in prayer. We may be legitimately unable to spend a whole night thus in prayer. But the example set by Jesus shows us that when we face big decisions or difficult challenges it might behoove us to dedicate time to prayer.
Jesus came down the mountain bearing the fruit of his communion with God as Moses had once done. He was not there merely for his own pleasure or peace but in order to call the Twelve and to symbolically begin the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel. These twelve Apostles were the same who Jesus prophesied would "sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (see Luke 22:30). Since Jesus was the true son of David and heir to his throne the twelve were also like the twelve district governors Solomon set over all of Israel. Indeed the task of those governors was "providing food for the king's household" (see First Kings 4:7) in the same way that Jesus each of his Apostles was meant to be a "faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time" (see Matthew 24:45). The restoration of the Davidic throne and the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel was a monumental thing, the fulfillment of of the peoples' messianic hope. Jesus demonstrated by his prayer that his choices were not capricious or arbitrary, but came rather from the Father's heart.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles
The disciples themselves must have taken comfort from the prayer that preceded Jesus choosing them. None of them were highly qualified by the standards of the world. If anything, most of them probably suspected that something about them would rule them out as a choice. But the solemnity and the certainty with which Jesus, as a fruit of his prayer, was able to call them, probably helped them to trust in his judgment about them.
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
The trust would be tested, because Jesus included in this number Judas even though he knew he would be betrayed by him. This was in a way the beginning that would finally lead the way the his Passion and he knew it. But imagine the uncertainty that this eventual betrayal would cause in the hearts of the other Apostles, both about the Jesus, and then as a corollary, about themselves and his choice of them. If Jesus had been wrong about him could he not be mistaken about any of them? Yet the prayer of Jesus, the time he spent with God, was an invitation to trust that even in this choice, even in his choosing the cross, there was yet a deeper wisdom at work. If they could believe this then perhaps they could believe that even their own failings might yet be taken up by God into the greater story of his mercy.
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.
The choosing of the twelve, including Simon and Jude, was not without consequence even for us in our own day. They were the solid rocks upon which the household of God was to be built. And it is in this house, the Church, that we now dwell. Jesus himself is making us grow into a temple sacred in the Lord and a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. We may rightly believe that in that night he spent in prayer Jesus did not foresee only the Twelve but also each one of us as well, delighting in the unique ways in which we would be a part of his temple, joining together to glorify God through his Spirit.
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