Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God (Lk 6:12).

In the midst of a busy ministry, Jesus spent time alone with God in prayer. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus often did so before making important decisions, as in today’s reading that recorded the choosing of his Apostles. Prayer is an important, foundational principle to experiencing and knowing God as well as discerning his will for living a fully human life.

The Mystery of God is not a problem to be solved. In our language today, we often use mystery and problem interchangeably, as, “I lost my keys, it is such a mystery.” Strictly speaking, the loss of keys is a problem that can be solved. We can back track our steps, and through a process of elimination the problem becomes smaller until we solve the whereabouts of the missing keys. We cannot solve or prove God exists as if he is a problem to be solved. This is because God is not a being, not even the supreme being. God is a mystery that transcends any finite dimension of reality. We have nothing to measure him by, we cannot prove his existence, nor can we solve him as we would a problem.

Yet we can come to know God intimately just as Jesus did. Even though he is transcendent, beyond our reach and comprehension, he is at the same time closer to us than we are to our self. We come to know God through his invitation, and as we enter into the mystery of his reality through developing a relationship with him, we come to know him. He does not become smaller, but more vast, beyond our comprehension. His mystery is luminous, as if we were in a completely dark room and someone turned on and shined a flashlight into our eyes. We wince from its brightness, yet in time, our eyes adjust and we eventually are able to see what was beyond our ability apart from the light. Jesus wants us to experience and embrace the mystery of the radiance and warmth of his Father’s light and love.

Jesus called each apostle by name. He calls us by name too. We can come to know God, though we will never fully comprehend him because we are finite beings. Our lives are busy and full, even with good things, yet, if we are not making time to spend with God alone as Jesus did, we will run out of gas, we will make decisions that may appear to be good, but will lead us astray and away from the fulfillment of our vocation and experience of God. Through making time for prayer with him, meditating on his word, learning from those who experienced God in their prayer lives, worshipping him, serving him through our service to others, we will discern his will for our lives, be drawn ever deeper into his mystery to experience the intimacy of communion and relationship we have been created for.

Please pray for all of us making the trek back home from our exodus today and this week, and those recovering from the effects of Harvey and Irma.

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Link for Mass readings for the day:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091217.cfm

Photo:

Great location I spent time in prayer at Hidden Treasure Airbnb in Panama City Florida before the winds and rain tracked us down.