From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts…
At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”
Then he summoned his twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits
to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the twelve apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew 9:36-10:8
“Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them” comes across as a bit weak in English translation. Working from the Greek original, commentators tell us his gut is emotionally moved, anguishing, about the mess the crowd’s lives are. What does Jesus see all around that causes him anguish for his lost sheep? In broad terms, people suffering sicknesses and deaths (physical, mental, and moral) people tossed out of communities and isolated, people whose lives are dominated by evil.
He has good news they all need to hear, a call to a better life in him they all need to begin living. They need “good shepherds” to guide them, to see that they are fed properly, protected and healed from evils, even brought back from the living death they struggle with. Nothing short of that is what Christ wants for them.
Jesus, alone, as a human being, cannot reach the entire world. He designates 12 foundation stones for the long-term gathering of God’s People we call “the Church.” Earlier, Moses had begun with 12 whole Jewish tribes joined together in a 40-year sojourn and struggle that eventually brought them to the Promised Land. Christ’s anguish starts with his concern for his people the Jews but includes the oppressed of the entire world—so paradoxically, he begins smaller with a band of 12 and instructs them for only a couple of years. These men are the foundational stones for the expanded, more inclusive People of God, Jews but Greeks as well, and eventually those living far beyond the Greeks.
These 12 he chooses are unique. No one after their generation is directly chosen by the Lord to pass on what he showed them and taught them.* They will pass on their call to leadership of his People, but no subsequent generation of leaders could consist of eyewitnesses. Those following generations are duty bound to not contradict what the original 12 saw and heard from Jesus.
Our reading ends with one strict warning to the Twelve: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” This has proved a needed warning over the centuries since then. As we see in Judas among the 12 and then with others in the book of Acts, there are always some want-to-be leaders who succumb to the lure of evil, those who try to use Christ as a cover for the greed or lust or desire for power that actually dominates them. If Christ had to warn the 12 of this danger, we hearers of the Word should remain alert, too.
For further reflection:
One other item we should note in the twelve named Apostles: Matthew calls Peter “first.” As a commentator points out, this “first” is not an adverb, meaning Jesus choose Peter first, then second, he chose Andrew and so on. In fact, back in chapter 4, verse 18, Matthew shows us Jesus calling Peter and Andrew at the same time while they were working for their father.
Rather, he is now designating Peter as “First” among the Apostles, that is, their head. This agrees exactly with the end of John’s Gospel, and with Luke’s depiction of how the earliest Church grew in Acts under the overall leadership of Peter. This pattern of the successor of Peter as the overall head of the Church has continued ever since among the successors of the original Apostles in the Catholic Church.