In today’s Gospel Jesus “summons” the Twelve and sends them out to continue His work of healing. The word apostle (apostolos) comes from the Greek verb apostello, “to send.” An apostle, such as the Twelve or St. Paul, is one who is sent by Jesus to preach the Gospel. An apostle must also be a disciple, a student of Jesus. Before the Twelve can be sent out on mission they must first learn the ways of Jesus by listening to His teachings and seeing how He welcomes all people and excludes none.
After the Twelve had learned from Jesus and been summoned “they went off and preached repentance. The word repentance means to turn, to turn to God as Jesus proclaims at the beginning of His ministry:
“After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: ‘This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15).
The gospel that Jesus proclaims is that God is near, “God is at hand.” Jesus invites everyone He encounters to turn to this God and put their faith and their trust in this one true God.
If we are to be an apostolic church, we too must learn from Jesus and follow the ways of Jesus. With the first disciples we are invited to encounter Jesus each day, to learn from His words and His actions. Jesus heals by His words and by His touch. Each of us has been “summoned” through our baptism to continue Jesus’ work of healing. We are summoned to help people to see how very near God is to each one of them. We go forth to preach not ourselves or our agenda, but God’s way made incarnate in the words and actions of Jesus. The popular hymn, The Summons, echoes the message of today’s Gospel: “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?”