Commentary of the Gospell

September 6, 2022

Did Jesus Choose Well?

There are times when I have prayed hard before taking certain decisions that mattered most, only to realize later that they have “backfired” and left me wondering if I made my decisions correctly. I am sure you would have had similar experiences as well. Today’s passage should put us at ease. Even Jesus’ own decision to choose the apostles, arrived after a whole night of prayer, seems to have “backfired” with the choice of Judas. In our “common sense” we wonder if Jesus couldn’t have chosen better! However, in the “gospel-sense”, we know that it was all part of the grand design of God, and Jesus’ decisions, arrived at after hours of prayer, were perfectly in alignment with God’s will. It must console us: if we have arrived at decisions after sincere efforts at discerning God’s will and hours of prayer, even when they are seemingly disastrous, we can rest assured that our decisions are safe within the grand design of God. 

Paulson Veliyannoor, CMF - Claretian Publications Philippines