Jan 21: We Are All Called To Be Apostles

Anonymous: Christ and the Twelve Apostles
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, c. 1100

Memorial of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr

Gospel: Mk 3:13-19

And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons (NRSV, Mk 3:14-15).

Lord God, the Twelve appointed by Jesus, their numbers renewed by the addition of Matthias to replace Judas, underwent a radical transformation following the resurrection of Jesus. Their understanding of you, Lord, began to be seriously rethought and reorganized. First of all, they realized that the promise that had been made to the people was finally not about the land at all. It was about an otherworldly kingdom, your absolute reign, Father, over all creation, a kingdom which they now recognized as having been established through your only begotten Son, your Word. It is through the Word that everything has been created and through whom we are all made holy. And the Word has become flesh in the Lord Jesus who now, in the body, sits at your right hand.

The Twelve also came to understand that, as the Lord Jesus had dedicated himself to proclaiming the coming of the kingdom, that mission was clearly now passed on to them. The same mission and authority that had been given to Jesus was entrusted to them and indeed to all who had experienced the risen Lord.

An apostle, Lord, we learn from Paul, is anyone who has encountered Jesus in his resurrection and is by that very experience sent as an ambassador to proclaim the good news of salvation. The Twelve were thus joined in their mission by Mary Magdalene and the holy women who were reported to have been the first to encounter the risen Lord. There were others: the five hundred who had seen the Lord Jesus at one time, the Lord’s brother James, and many more, including Paul, who considered himself the last and the least of the apostles.

As the encounter with the risen Jesus awakened in the consciousness of the apostles what you speak, Father, through the Word to everyone at the depth of one’s being, so the lives of all of the apostles, transformed by your grace, Father, have in turn prompted a conscious awareness in the rest of us who believe much of what you reveal to everyone, spoken in your one Word, in a manner that is often pre-conscious. We who have not had an immediate experience of the resurrected Jesus now also recognize him in the Word who is always present to all in every time and place.

As the Son was sent by you, his Father, and the apostles sent by Jesus, now we, who have come to an understanding of the same truth, are sent as well to announce the truth of the kingdom and the lordship of Jesus Christ. Father, may we commit ourselves with all that we are to this mission as you challenge us at every moment to continue to grow in your divine life.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.