Coming Down the Mountain

Gospel: Luke 6: 12-19

Jesus goes up the mountaintop to pray through the night.  In the morning he comes down from the mountain and calls together twelve people to help him in his ministry.  Jesus then immediately sets about to do that ministry: he goes about healing others and delivering people from the demons that hold them bound.  Jesus models for his new community what is to be their work and mission in the world - to pray at the mountaintop, and to heal and liberate others.

Recall that at Mount Sinai Moses spent time on the mountaintop in prayer with God.  When Moses comes down the mountain, he brings with him the law written on stone tablets.  When he sees the people in the grip of a false god, Moses inflicts punishment and rage upon the people.  The people only return to God out of fear and revulsion of the punishment set upon them.  Their fidelity to God would be temporary, as time and again they would vacillate between fidelity and infidelity to God.

Each of us has these two options available to us.  We can respond to our time of prayer with God in the way Moses did - holding to law and condemning others.  Or we can respond to prayer as Jesus did - inviting others to work of the common good, going forward to heal others of their infirmities and liberating people from their demons.  As followers of Jesus who modeled the response for his first followers, it is for us to imitate his example of prayer and response to God's love.