Homily for the Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles

All four Gospels tell the story of Jesus choosing His Apostles. Still, only St. Luke tells us that, before He chose them, Jesus prayed the entire night. He prayed about this; His choice of those twelve people resulted from His prayer. St. Luke emphasizes that Jesus prayed before all the essential moments of His life — just after His baptism, just before He set out for Jerusalem, while in the Garden of Gethsemane as He neared His passion and death, and on the Cross only moments before He died.
 
We, too, should pray to God at significant moments. During those moments, we need to appreciate our need for guidance, strength, and courage from God. Our prayer does not necessarily mean everything will work out perfectly for us. We know that, although Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before He chose the Twelve, one of them would go on to betray him. Yet, we can be sure that our prayerful surrender to the LORD at such times will always create space for Him to work, even when things do not work out as we had hoped.