Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
Summoning twelve was a part of the plan of Jesus to establish the Kingdom of heaven, the new and spiritual Israel built on the pillars of the Twelve disciples.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (see Matthew 19:28)
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (see Revelation 21:14).
The authority Jesus gave to his disciples was not a political authority, not an authority of domination, but one ordered toward service. They were thus to be like Jesus himself who "came not to be served but to serve" (see Matthew 20:28). But the ability to do service in this way was not a built in ability they had as a consequence of being human. It was a spiritual authority given to them by Jesus himself.
We naturally tend to assume that the authority given by Jesus had to do only with the hierarchical institutions of the Church and nothing to do with ourselves. But this is a limited view of what the disciples themselves did since their exercise of their authority in the Gospels had little to do with institutions or rules. It was rather a more charismatic authority that we share by virtue of our baptisms which make us all to be priests, prophets, and, yes, kings. His authority can allow us to be victorious in our struggle with sin, self-possessed insofar as we allow his power to take hold of us. And it equips us for works of service for the Church. Does this sound like whimsy or wishful thinking? It did not for Paul.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (see Ephesians 1:3).
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (see First Corinthians 12:7).
We often imagine to ourselves that he called the Twelve specifically but that we have only come across him by chance. But this is not so. We have been called and chosen every bit as much as them.
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world (see Ephesians 1:4).
The Twelve were sent to regather the dispersed tribes of Israel around Jesus himself as their king, for it was Israel that was to be a blessing to all other nations, those of us from Gentile backgrounds. But now the Gospel has gone forth to all nations and all peoples are invited to join themselves to Jesus and his Kingdom. Yet many still wander and stray as lost sheep without a shepherd. It is to them that we are sent, and for their sake it is that we have been given the authority of service, through the power of the Spirit. Paul would remind us that each disciple manifests this power differently. But all of us are meant to have a heart for the lost and lonely. Because of this we must not fear or neglect the authority Jesus has bestowed on us for their sakes. We have indeed been established precisely to feed those who are spiritually hungry, just as was Joseph in Egypt.
When the famine had spread throughout the land,
Joseph opened all the cities that had grain
and rationed it to the Egyptians,
since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.
In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain,
for famine had gripped the whole world.
It is now the Church that has the antidote to the world's spiritual hunger. We must not be content to sit and watch any starve when the feast is so close at hand and freely available to all.
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