Word to the Wise
Friday, October 28, 2022 - Oct. 28 - Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
[Eph 2:19-22 and Luke 6:12-19]You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. [Ephesians] Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles. [Luke]
The word "apostle" comes from a Greek word meaning "someone who is sent." Although the number twelve seems connected with the twelve tribes of Israel and the idea of the early Christian community as the "new Israel," Jesus' choice also seems to have been missionary as well - to expand the message of the kingdom of God. Jesus would also, later on, appoint "seventy-two" others to missionary work. But the Twelve became a kind of foundational representation of the church and bishops are considered to be "successors to the apostles," and the pope is called "the successor to St. Peter." A lot of theology swirls around the significance of all of this and creates big books!
Those first twelve were an unusual group and we know the backgrounds of only a few of them, but the diversity of those called to spread the word continues. We have only to look around us! As Pope Francis wrote in his first document, THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL [Evangelii gaudium]. we are all called to be "missionary disciples." Simon was a political activist of some kind. Jude managed to become patron saint of hopeless cases. [I, for one, am glad SOMEBODY is!] But, as the Letter to the Ephesians declares today, we are all members of the "household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets." We stand on the shoulders of a group as diverse as we are and with all the faults and foibles that we have. Jesus himself reminds us that he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. [Matt. 9:13]. The original Twelve, with all their subsequent significance and power, remain a reminder of Jesus' call! AMEN