What Jesus is doing in today’s Gospel is part of a larger strategy. Jesus’ choosing of twelve apostles is a deliberate way of showing that His aim is to refund the people of God, as once the twelve tribes of Israel were called by God. The apostles are not to lay siege to anywhere that resists, but to move on. This creates a sense of the urgency of Christ’s message. The kingdom of heaven is close at hand; the time is now. Even before the resurrection, we see the two main weapons that Christ gives the Church – the word of God and the sacraments. The apostles are to preach, and anoint with oil to heal those who are sick. Obviously Christ’s strategy in the Gospel reading is not meant for all. The apostles are chosen for this task at this particular time. Most of us have quite different lives, with responsibilities that we can’t just drop. However, we can all take something from this message.
Firstly, all of us carry around certain personal baggage that can hold us back, and make us less fruitful. We may find something difficult to forgive, we might be unreasonably fearful of something. Secondly, Christ has given us a means to get rid of this sort of baggage. Through the sacraments we can both leave behind what hinders us, and move forward in the service of Christ. We “have heard the message of the truth and the good news of salvation, and have believed it.†It took great faith and courage for the apostles to do what Christ told them, and we too can ask for that faith and courage.