Twelve Apostles - the beginning of the Church
In the exegesis of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10 is called: Jesus' speech to the apostles. Let us remind us that in this Gospel there are five great speeches of Jesus. The first is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). The speech to the apostles is the second (Matthew 10) There will also be: the speech in parables (Mt. 13); the so-called ecclesial speech, that is addressed to the Church (Mt. 18), and the eschatological speech (Mt. 24-25). Once again we meet the evangelist's tendency to group material thematically. This applies to both Jesus' activities (miracles) and His teaching.
Pericope Mt.10:1-4 relates a very important event in Jesus' earthly mission. The teacher chooses a group of twelve, the most close and trusted people. They will be subject to His special formation, will be constantly with Him and will entrust them with the responsibility to continue the work He has begun. It should be noted that there is a qualitative difference between the apostles and the disciples of Jesus. Yes, these concepts are sometimes interchangeable in the gospels, but in fact the disciples are all who believed and followed Jesus. This group is not counted in the gospels. As for the apostles, it is a group strictly limited to twelve. In the situation where Judas was removed from this group, the rest of the apostles felt it was their duty to fill the empty space so that there would be twelve, as Jesus wanted (see Acts 1:15-26). Regarding the apostles, it should be added that only those who were chosen by Jesus himself were included in this group. No one, on their own initiative, became strictly speaking an apostle of Jesus.
Jesus called the twelve disciples. This call expresses the idea of a vocation. They became apostles because Jesus himself wanted them. From this information, it can also be read that the apostles came from the group of disciples. It can therefore be assumed that they had already followed Jesus for some time, had received a certain formation from Him, and that before He called them, He Himself had been watching them before. They came from different places, from different spheres of society, they differed among themselves in many respects, but now the Messiah gathers them into one body. From now on, they will most often perform together to form an apostolic college, often called the Twelve.
Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits. These words clearly show that the task of the newly created body is primarily spiritual. They are called to spiritual assignments, and in this area they receive power and competence from their Master. They are also supposed to heal diseases and ailments. The second task, closely related to the first, is to serve the needy. This is the caritas mission. There is not a word about other tasks or goals here. If the apostles, in the intention of the Son of God, were to constitute the beginning of the Church, and they really did, the power and tasks given to them, passed to the whole Church for all time. The mission of the Church is spiritual in the first place: to liberate people from the power of evil and to witness merciful love around them. There is also - of course - the preaching of the word of God. It seems, then, that only in this way can the Church justify her existence, especially in the eyes of the modern world ... The Evangelist lists the names of the apostles one by one (Mt 10:2-4)
A similar list, without major differences, can be found in the other synoptic gospels (Mk 3: 13-19; Lk. 6: 12-16) and in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1: 13). All the apostles are named. This is important because in this way the collegiality of the apostles avoids anonymity. Moreover, the evangelist lists them in pairs, two by two. Perhaps this is a reference to the information that Mark passes on that Jesus sends his apostles on a mission in pairs (Mk 6: 7), or perhaps it is about even greater emphasis on the unity between the apostles, their collegiality. Some of the mentioned apostles will be found frequently in the pages of the New Testament, others will appear only episodically, and still others are only mentioned in the presented lists of the apostles.
The first in this group are Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew. Peter is always first in the lists of the apostles. This figure has a special place in the Gospel of Matthew. He is one of the first called by Jesus. He appears very often as a representative of the Twelve. Simon is a fisherman from Bethsaida. One day, Jesus would change his name, Simon, to Peter - the rock. In Paul's letters he is mentioned as Cephas, which also means rock (Aramaic Cephas - rock; Greek Petra - rock). His current name Simon (Hebrew Simeon - listen" or "hearing) does not disappear, however, but often appears together with the new one. With the change of name, Peter is given the so-called power of the keys - or otherwise - the power to loosen and bind (Matthew 16:19). In the opinion of psychologists, Peter is an example of a sanguine. He is very zealous and impulsive, but at the same time unstable emotionally. He is disgraced by his threefold denial of the Master. However, he is an example of a man who can regret his sins. After Jesus' Ascension, he leads the Christian community in Jerusalem. He died a martyr's death in Rome around 64. Andrew (Greek: Andreas - brave, courageous) is Simon's brother. He and his brother were engaged in fishing. According to the Gospel of John, it was he who brought his brother Simon to Jesus (Jn. 1: 41-42). He is practically invisible in the history of the Gospel. The Gospel of John pays the most attention to him.
Another pair of apostles are the brothers James (may God protect) and John (Heb. Johanan - God is gracious), sons of Zebedee, called by Jesus with Peter and Andrew on the Sea of Galilee (Mt. 4: 18-22). Together with Peter, they are among Jesus' closest disciples and collaborators. Mark gives them the title Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17), most likely because of their impulsive nature. They are remembered by the readers of the Gospels as those who wanted to take places to the right and left of Jesus in his kingdom (Mt. 20:21). Then we meet Philip ("horse-loving" or "fond of horses") and Bartholomew (Aramaic: son of Talmai"). These two characters are most prominent in the Gospel of John (Jn. 1: 43-51), in which Bartholomew appears under the name Nathanael (Hebrew, gift of God). Then Thomas (Hebrew for twin), who to this day makes a career as a doubting and Matthew (Hebrew Matityahu which means "Gift of Yahweh "), until he was appointed a tax collector in Capernaum (Mt. 9: 9). He is followed by James, son of Alphaeus, about whom nothing else is known, and Thaddeus, who appears elsewhere as Judah, son of Jacob (Acts 1: 13). The body of the Twelve is closed by Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot. We know nothing more about the first one. The nickname given to him may suggest either his place of origin or his character (enthusiastic, zealous). As for Judas, various attempts are made to understand the etymology of his nickname: an Iscariot may indicate the place of Kriyot, where Judas may have come from, or it is derived from Aramaic sica - a dagger, and then it would indicate that Judas belonged to the so-called Sicarii, the most radical faction of zealots who carried out secret killings of Israel's enemies, in this case it would be about the Romans occupying Palestine. From the perspective of the completed story, Matthew reports that Judas betrayed Jesus. Indeed, this evangelist describes this dark episode most extensively in the accounts of Jesus and Judas (Matthew 26:14-16: 20-25; 27: 3-10).
The group gathered by Jesus is characterized by great diversity and even extreme opposites: simple, uneducated fishermen together with educated Mathew and Bartholomew. The latter shows aristocratic manners, at least this is the impression one can get from the account of the Evangelist John (Jn. 1:46). Next, Matthew, a tax collector, collaborator with the occupant, and Judas, a member of the resistance against the Romans. Restless Peter and zealous, not always in the proper sense of the word, James and John. Spiritually sublime Bartholomew and skeptic Thomas. These are the ones Jesus chose to be the beginning of the Church, and so will the Church be, to which nothing human will be alien to ... But this is the will of the Lord. "Holy Church of sinful people." We all belong to this Church as we are. In her is the place of our sanctification. This was also the case with the apostles. From weakness, infidelity, sins, they reached the peak of holiness. We will come too. We have the same chance ...
Holy Church, praise your Lord!
Until Tomorrow
fr. george