Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 22, 2011 - St. Agnes, virgin and martyr
[Hebrews 8:6-13 and Mark 3:13-19]Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
The Gospel of Mark is considered to be the first gospel put into writing. (St. Paul's epistles are older, however.) There is not as much detail to it as in Matthew and Luke. John is almost a different world. Yet Matthew and Luke borrow considerably from Mark and that is why the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the "synoptic" gospels because they have so much in common. Even so, the list of the Twelve has some ambiguity because Mark speaks of Levi the tax collector and Matthew and Luke speak of Matthew the tax collector. The three agree on Bartholomew but John calls him Nathanael! If this uncertainty appears in something as important as the list of names of the Apostles, there must be a more important truth to be realized. Concentrating on the names could cause us to miss this truth.
The first detail is location. Whenever Jesus goes up a mountain or into the hills, we should be alert to something important about to happen. The Sermon on the Mount or the Transfiguration are examples. There is an echo of Moses meeting God on Mt. Sinai and receiving the commandments. This detail alerts us to Jesus' authority in appointing certain disciples to a different status - Apostle (which means someone who is "sent"). A second detail is the number "Twelve." The early Christian community understood this number to correspond to the original twelve tribes of Israel and that Jesus was establishing a "new" Israel with a new covenant. The Acts of the Apostles shows us that this was considered so important that when Judas dropped out, someone had to take his place to keep the number at twelve!
The last detail that I want to note is that Jesus "summons" these men from the larger body of the disciples. He "appoints" them "to be with him" and that "he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons." These men are called, given a special relationship, and will be the first preachers. This sequence later becomes important for all of us. We are all called by virtue of our baptism, and some of us are called and appointed to exercise a particular role of ministry in the Church. Anyone who is called in this way should pay close attention to the words, "to be with him." No ministry worthy of the name can be effective without that relationship with the Lord.
My hope is that after reading this little "exercise" in scripture we may all pay closer attention to those many "commissioning" ceremonies for various ministries in our local parishes. Ordination ceremonies, by their very nature, carry a lot more pomp and circumstance (deacon, priest, bishop) but in every case, the "call," the "relationship," and the "sending" are crucial. The gospel today challenges us to an awareness of this. AMEN
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