First to Israel

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today looks at the people of the nation of Israel. The prophet Hosea reviews the growth and prosperity of God’s people, unfortunately in a direction away from intimate contact with the Divine. The works of human endeavor will collapse but God desires to restore the people to intimacy. Matthew relates the selection of the twelve Apostles. The number corresponds to the “twelve tribes of Israel” and Jesus instructs them to go specifically to the Jewish community to present the truth that the “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”( Matthew 10:7) This is the same mission as is given the 72 disciples elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel. The main method that this message is conveyed, then and now is through presence of the Apostle and disciple in the lives of others. This brings the active indwelling Spirit near the indwelling Spirit of the other which may respond in resonance with the Presence of the Kingdom.