Jesus risked everything for his mission
Jesus said to St. Catherine: I have the ability to give people everything they need for their soul and body; but I desire that they need each other and that they are my co-workers in distributing the graces and generosity that they have received from me. In this Sunday’s Gospel passage from St. Matthew we read: Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples; and following that: these are the names of the twelve apostles. In the blink of an eye, these followers change from “disciples” to “apostles”.
It is a transformation that we desire for ourselves. After all, every week in the Nicene Creed, we profess the Church to be “apostolic”. This mystery is captured in a painting from the 17th century entitled “Christ, the true vine”. It is a perfect example of Jesus’ statement on the night before he died (Jn 15, 1-8).
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit…
By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. The artist has identified Christ’s vine with the cross.
The apostles become potential grapevines sprouting from the cross.
God the Father stands at the foot of the cross, tending to its roots, and the Virgin Mary stands on the other side of the cross to water it. A community gathered under the cross is a group of great saints, including St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic, who longed for holiness, as evidenced by their vision of the Church they saw. The risk that Christ took St. Paul writes, The Church is built on “the foundation of the apostles” (Eph 2:20).
But Jesus was too risky in doing this. That means He established the Roman Catholic Church on frail, weak people - you and me and Jesus’ witnesses, whom Christ Himself chose and sent out to preach.
Biblical commentator Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis observes:
The grace of calling is not for the benefit of those who are called but for the benefit of all those whom they will serve. This mystery contains a full awareness of the unworthiness of each Apostle, for there is nothing to distinguish them from the commonness of the crowd. Only Jesus’ free choice - by pure grace - accounts for their transformation into Apostles.
The origin of our calling lies in Jesus’ absolute free choice, not in any quality or personal talent available to us beforehand, determining everything that happens later in our role as disciples and surely being an inexhaustible source of repentance, wonder and gratitude.
“Lord, why did you choose me, I am a sinner?”
This is wisdom that we all need to follow.
Holy dependence
The “way” of the Apostles shapes for us a truth at the very core of the Church’s existence (and it is depicted in the painting)
To profess that the Church is truly apostolic is to profess that it depends on divine power residing in God Triune, which then descends into Christ’s humanity, then into his twofold body (sacramental and magisterial), and finally into Christians. (Cardinal Charles Journet)
God revealed mysteriously to St. Catherine of Siena: I have the ability to give people everything they need for their soul and body; but I desire that they need each other and that they are my co-workers in distributing the graces and generosity that they have received from me.
In Mass, when we pray that: “O Lord eternal Shepherd, through your holy Apostles you always protect and keep”, we see most of that protection involving protecting us from pride, vanity, self-reliance, self-righteousness, and all related vices. The holy dependence that we have on the apostles of Christ keeps us in purity and peace. It preserves us in truth. The painting affirms visually that the source of power and strength of the apostles is the suffering of Christ crucified, with whom they are closely united.
The wealth of the apostles
The apostolic nature of the Church blesses God’s people with great mercy. The Lord entrusted to the apostles the task of communicating his grace to everyone. St. Irenaeus (3rd century) observed:
The apostles, like a rich man depositing his money in a bank, entrusted to the Church’s care everything that pertains to the truth, so that every person, whoever wishes, may draw from the Church the water of life.
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