Today’s Gospel proclamation shows us the distressed heart of Jesus just before He was to enter into His passion and death. He was distressed because He knew that there was one among His chosen disciples, who was going to betray Him. Has anything changed over 2000 years? Don’t we still grieve the Lord when we are so weak to say yes to His will? Or when we are too busy to spend time in prayer, that we may continually hear him and obey Him? We are called to be His disciples from the time we were baptized. Jesus waits for us to continue to love Him and share Him with the world and not abandon Him. In the first reading, the Lord is making a promise, “I will make you the light of the nations, that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth”. We are called to be a light to our nation, to our families and to our societies and not a cause for dissension. The first reading reminds us of this calling. It reminds us that we were chosen even before we were formed in our mother’s womb, to be a light to the world.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for perfectly knitting me. Keep me unchanged, so that I may continue to be attuned to the purpose of my calling. Amen