Yesterday’s first reading (Hosea 11: 1-4, 8-9) presented a bleak picture of Israel. The more luxurious the life of the people became, the more altars and shrines they built to pagan gods. The more affluent they were, the less faithful they were to God. The prophet Hosea tried to warn them, but the fact is that in 732 BC part of the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyrian armies, and the rest fell ten years later.
But God never gives up on His people. The Gospel (Matthew 10:7‑15) shows us Jesus selecting apostles to expand his preaching mission. The Twelve represent an interesting sample of human potential and problems. It is as though Jesus wanted to show the power of grace to make a community out of very different personalities, some even in conflict with each other. Four original disciples were from Galilee: Peter, Andrew, James and John, two sets of brothers, all fishermen. The others included Matthew, a tax collector, a zealot named Simon, a practical person named Philip, a skeptic named Thomas, and someone called Judas, who would turn out to be a traitor.
Jesus gives them authority to heal sickness and cast out demons. Even Judas is authorized to preach and perform these miracles in the name of Jesus. But Jesus limits their mission. They are to go only to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” not among the pagans or to Samaria. At this stage in his ministry, Jesus seems focused on the Jewish people as the extent of God’s Kingdom.
This is revealing, because five chapters later, Jesus will be drawn over the border into pagan territory when he encounters the Syrophoenician woman who asks him to heal her daughter (Matthew 15:21‑28). Jesus stretches Jewish exceptionalism into universal salvation. Eventually the Good News is communicated, through the Apostles, to all the peoples of the world. Removed though we are by 2,000 years from the time of Jesus, we are among the recipients of their work. The Apostles and all ministers of the Gospel are the instruments of God. It is His almighty power that has been responsible for the spread of the faith. And it is His grace which has opened our hearts to accept that faith.
The Good News for us in this Gospel is first, that imperfect people are called to be apostles, people with weaknesses and conflicts, even some capable of great sin and failure. God’s plans are worked out through ordinary people struggling in community. Second, human life is about learning and growth. At each stage, limits fall away to the freedom to expand our horizons and change our minds to do new and bigger things. God is always authorizing more life, more risk-taking and more creativity. We should not stay on defense or in comfort zones, living within familiar limits. We can be like the apostles, living at the margins, where growth occurs.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!