It is 23rd January 2015. The readings are from Heb.8:6-13 and the Gospel from Mk. 3:13-19. The first reading promises a new covenant. God says, “I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Mk.3:10) God wants a new relationship through this covenant. God took this first step towards us. We cannot change anything to what God has proposed it. The link person between us and God is Jesus, who connected us with God. God promised this new covenant through Jeremiah 31:31-34. So it is different in quality and kind. It is universal which means that everybody will know God. No one needs to be reminded because it is imprinted in every person. The old covenant depended on the obedience but the new covenant is written in the hearts of us all. Heart is the symbol and source of love. The new covenant is out of love not out of compulsion. The new covenant is based on forgiveness. “For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.” (Heb.3:12) It does not depend on our efforts but rather on the grace of God. It depends on God’s love. In the Responsorial Psalm, we acclaim, “Kindness and truth shall meet.” (Ps. 85:11a). The Gospel is narrating the appointment of the Twelve Apostles. This is the beginning of all beginnings of God’s love in a visible form. Jesus is inviting some to be intimate with him to carry out his ministry. It is an invitation to participate in God’s love and share the same with the rest of world. A new covenant of God’s love is being shared with these twelve persons. We too are invited by Jesus to participate in knowing God and loving God through him. To be with Him and to be sent out on mission of love is the basis of our vocation. Jesus becomes the message and Jesus is the power we have in disseminating the Gospel. May God bless you to do this mission in your own calling.