Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Feb 16, 2025
Before the passage from today’s Gospel, we find Jesus choosing his twelve closest partners. Many more had begun following him, compelled by his miraculous healing power and ability to persuade, teach, and debate. Indeed, “everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all” (Lk 6:19).
The first lesson Jesus teaches the Twelve he had hand-picked happens even before he opens his mouth: “Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people . . .” (Lk 6:17).
To be given a share of Jesus’s healing, preaching, and teaching authority does not mean being elevated above others, treated any differently, kept safe from the cares of the lowly.
Jesus came down. He didn’t stay up on the mountaintop where he had been praying. He had called his Twelve up to him, singling them out as those who would share in his power and mission. And immediately Jesus brought them down to be where the people were, down on level ground, no higher than anyone else. Down to where his power was meant to be, where it would find its purpose and end.
To be given a share of Jesus’s healing, preaching, and teaching authority does not mean being elevated above others, treated any differently, kept safe from the cares of the lowly. If anything, it gives those chosen even more responsibility to be side by side with those whom Jesus loved.
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