“Jesus went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.”
Jesus went up the mountain to select his leadership team. Mountains were privileged places for prayer, for encountering God. We can think of Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive God’s law, the covenant of God with his people. And Jesus often went up the mountain to pray, especially before important moments, significant events and decisions. Even in Lukes Gospel of the choosing of the twelve, Jesus spent the entire night in a prayer.
The letter to the Hebrews today speaks about Jesus as “the mediator of a better covenant”, obtaining “a more excellent ministry”. In speaking of a “new covenant, “he has made the old one (the Mosaic law) obsolete.” But that old law is often quoted in the Gospels and the early Church felt a link between the two covenants. When God made a new covenant with the house of Israel it did not empty the Mosaic law of all meaning.
What is obsolete is the spirit of rigidity. The letter kills, the spirit gives life. We try to conform our wills to God’s will as children, not as slaves. We do not do good for external show but for inner peace, not for seeking reward but to express love and gratitude. The smallest demand of the law is to find fulfillment in the midst of daily life in a loving spirit. Our real motivation for living the new covenant is to value quiet prayer, to find our security in Jesus, letting Him touch our hearts. This can renew our outlook, becoming vibrant with the presence of Jesus, the new covenant.
Jesus sent out the twelve to do what he was doing, to share in his work, to preach the Gospel by word and work, and to heal and reconcile. He needed the help of others to do the work God had sent him to do. We are his hands and his feet, his voice, his eyes, his ears, to continue his work today. He wants to work in us and through us, and each one has a part to play. There are no second-class citizens: each of us is a vital member of Christ’s body, the Church, with unique gifts for his work and mission in the world.