Ordinary People

Gospel: Luke 6: 12-16

Despite various legends that are unable to be verified, the apostles were ordinary people with ordinary backgrounds and professions.  They come to encounter Jesus and their lives are changed, as is the trajectory of their lives.  Instead of fishing on the lake, they find themselves in various lands of the Jewish diaspora seeking to encourage other people to live as Jesus taught and did in his own life.  They went about healing people, delivering them from their demons, and feeding them, just as Jesus did.

We do not find the apostles erecting large buildings and selling time shares in pews for an hour each week.  We find them instead organizing small communities dedicated to living as Jesus did, encouraging people in their own ordinary lives to carry on the way of living that Jesus embodied in extending mercy and loving kindness to others.  Their lives would in turn inspire others to live similarly in their own places and professions of ordinary living.

We honor the memory of the apostles best when we too carry on this work of mercy and loving kindness, when we go about seeking to heal, liberate, and nourish others in our daily life.  They do not need statues and shrines in their honor.  They need us to live as Jesus taught and lived, as they taught and lived in his name.  And the world we live inhabit today desperately needs us to live in this way as well.  Today is a day for us to reflect on how best to do that in our ordinary lives.