Friday of the
Second Week in Ordinary Time
(I Samuel 24:3-21; Mark 3:13-19)
Today’s first reading establishes David as worthy of
being Israel’s king. He has shown
military prowess when he slew Goliath.
Now he is pictured as piously refusing to harm the Lord’s anointed
one. Eventually David will falter, but
he begins with all the promise of Michelangelo chiseling the “Pieta” in St.
Peter’s Basilica.
The disciples whom Jesus chooses as his apostles in
today’s gospel similarly have an auspicious start. They are all Jews but from various
backgrounds. Like young men drafted into
the U.S. Army during World War II, they will be molded into a victorious
evangelizing force. But not all of them
will make the grade; indeed, they all stumble on the way. First, Judas will remove himself from the
company of apostles by betraying Jesus.
The others will abandon Jesus in the garden with Peter acting especially
ignobly afterwards by denying discipleship.
We have been chosen for glory like David and for evangelizing
like the apostles. Though we may not
have been able to give personal assent to this choice at Baptism, we have
accepted the Lord into our lives. We too
may falter in carrying out some duties, perhaps grievously like Peter. But Jesus is ever willing to forgive us. Then all the more we can proclaim God’s
eternal love.
