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Jesus summoned those he desired and appointed twelve disciples.

Published by victor caleb on January 23rd, 2023.

Jesus went up into the hills and summoned those he wanted. So they came to him and he appointed twelve; they were to be his companions and to be sent out to preach, with power to cast out devils. And so he appointed the Twelve: Simon to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges or ‘Sons of Thunder’; then Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the man who was to betray him.

Reflection on the Sculptures on the facade of St Peter’s Basilica

We may think that we have chosen Jesus, but in fact, He chose us first! Just as with the twelve apostles: he chose them. For today’s artwork, there was no need to look much further than the facade of St Peter’s Basilica here in Rome. The statues, all sculpted in 1612-1613, show Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, or to be precise eleven apostles and St. John the Baptist. The missing apostle is St. Peter because he was given (together with St. Paul) a separate statue in St Peter’s square in front of this very façade.

To make it easier, I have marked all the Apostles on the photograph. From left to right we have St. Thaddeus, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. Thomas, St. James the Elder, St. John the Baptist, St. Andrew, St John the Evangelist, St. James the Younger, St. Bartholemew, St. Simon, and St. Matthias.

The word apostle means ‘one who is sent’. Scholarship suggests that an apostle is one who is sent by the risen Jesus (hence Paul’s claim to be one of the apostles too)-before then, they were disciples, i.e., learners. I know that Luke says he called them apostles at their calling, but in the reading for the day, Mark doesn’t say this. A small distinction maybe, but certainly not an insignificant one.