Daily Retreat 01/19/07
2007 Jan 19 Fri
Heb 8: 6-13/ Ps 84(85): 8 and 10. 11-12. 13-14/ Mk 3: 13-19
From today’s readings: “Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as He is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.... Kindness and truth shall meet.... 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....”
Sending of Apostles
The very word “apostle” means “one who is sent.” In choosing His apostles, Jesus was designating them and commissioning them to go forth in His Name to preach His Gospel and share in His work. This He did on occasion even while He was bodily with them on earth (cf. Mark 6:7ff), and even more radically after His Resurrection (cf. Mark 16:15ff).
“Apostolicity”is thus one of the marks of Christ’s true Church, the unbroken connection to the foundational commissioning of those Twelve men chosen by Christ for that purpose. Peter, who clearly exercised a role of leadership among the college of Apostles, was the first Pope, and Pope Benedict is now his 264th successor in that office, and the other bishops of the Church are the successors to the band of the Apostles.
It is most significant that Jesus specifically and deliberately chose these men to share in His own mission and authority. The Son of God could have organized the Church of His followers without any such visible hierarchy of helpers, but in His Providence, God did as He knew best, summoning and forming and sending forth His apostolic assistants as a blessing of pastoral guidance for all ages.
Heb 8: 6-13/ Ps 84(85): 8 and 10. 11-12. 13-14/ Mk 3: 13-19
From today’s readings: “Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as He is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.... Kindness and truth shall meet.... 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....”
Sending of Apostles
The very word “apostle” means “one who is sent.” In choosing His apostles, Jesus was designating them and commissioning them to go forth in His Name to preach His Gospel and share in His work. This He did on occasion even while He was bodily with them on earth (cf. Mark 6:7ff), and even more radically after His Resurrection (cf. Mark 16:15ff).
“Apostolicity”is thus one of the marks of Christ’s true Church, the unbroken connection to the foundational commissioning of those Twelve men chosen by Christ for that purpose. Peter, who clearly exercised a role of leadership among the college of Apostles, was the first Pope, and Pope Benedict is now his 264th successor in that office, and the other bishops of the Church are the successors to the band of the Apostles.
It is most significant that Jesus specifically and deliberately chose these men to share in His own mission and authority. The Son of God could have organized the Church of His followers without any such visible hierarchy of helpers, but in His Providence, God did as He knew best, summoning and forming and sending forth His apostolic assistants as a blessing of pastoral guidance for all ages.
posted by FrPitstick | 1/17/2007
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