With the call of Matthew [Levi], Jesus now has the twelve apostles gathered around him. According to the dictionary an apostle is one who is chosen. It describes it as the English transliteration of the Greek word meaning “one who is sent out.”
An apostle is a personal messenger or envoy, commissioned to transmit a message or otherwise carry out the instructions of the commissioning agent, in this case, Jesus. In the New Testament, the term is commonly associated with the special inner circle of Jesus’ disciples, who accompany him during his ministry, to receive his teachings, observe his actions and follow his instructions.
Within the gospel reading for today, the disciples experience Jesus’ commissioning them. Through this, they are uniquely qualified to witness to his message and to carry out his work through the ministry of the Church within the House of Israel. The twelve is also representative of the twelve tribes of Israel. Their mission was also restricted in that they were to go only to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.”
And so it is that Jesus’ call to his apostles has been passed down from ages past to our time, where we are called, as a Church and individually, to carry on his mission in the world.
Generally, our call is not as direct as that of the apostles, but as people who have been baptised, we are called to follow Jesus and take his mission into our day-to-day lives; in our relationships, in our own spirituality, into our workplaces and yes, even into our social lives.
This comes to us through the vocation to which we are called. Priests and religious are not the only ones to have a vocation. To be called is vocation and when we receive the sacrament of baptism, we are called to be children of God and the evolving direction of our lives, as we grow and develop, will provide opportunities for God to call us to various vocations.
Whatever our vocation, we must always keep in mind that just as we grow and develop physically and, in the progress of our growth, we have to build on what we have learned whether academically or through life’s experiences. So it is that our faith lives begin from an early age, but what we learn as a child requires growth and development through our childhood, adolescence, young adult- hood to adulthood and then through to mature age.
It is interesting to follow the sociological scheme of development and how much this also relates to the growth and development of our faith lives. It is interesting, as a minister, to come in contact with mature aged Christians, who still live in the early childhood faith. This is mainly because they have not been encouraged, or maybe not been interested in or comfortable with leaving the old style religion. They are comfortable in the place where they are and are enclosed; their own comfort zone.
What is really necessary is to continue to grow in faith and own our own faith at the stage of development we are experiencing. It is important to not stop the discovery that learning can bring about. Our relationship with God and his call to vocation is ham- pered or stymied if we are not prepared to accept this growth and conversion.
• Deacon Les
