Alexander the Great was an invincible general. At the age of 20 he inherited a united (mostly) Greece and the best army in the world from his father Philip. He proceeded to conquer Persia, Egypt, Palestine, parts of central Asia and even portions of India.
He was enormously intelligent and never lost a battle. Before attacking an enemy, he would scout the terrain that would serve as a battlefield and also find out as much as he could about the local people.
But for all his intelligence he seemed to lack wisdom in important areas. His conquests ceased not because his army was defeated but because his soldiers were tired of fighting all the time and demanded to go home.
Above all he failed to make provision for his empire after his death. When he died short of his 33rd birthday, war ensued over control of the vast stretches of earth he had conquered. It was only 22 years after his death that war ceased with his huge empire divided into four parts.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is making provision for the Church, which will continue his work after his death and resurrection. Today’s lectionary skips the verses in which Jesus’ twelve apostles are named, but it tells us that they received authority to expel unclean spirits and to cure sickness and disease of every kind. They are to ‘cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the leprous and expel demons.’
This whole season of Advent is a time of announcing the Good News of our Lord. The first reading from Isaiah and the psalm prophesy the great future deeds of the Messiah. And these future deeds, this golden era of the future, include not only the actions of Jesus but also of the Church he founded.
Sometimes we have the temptation to believe that the Good News is about Jesus, but not about the Church, that somehow involving the Church brings in an element of bad news. This notion is certainly not found in the New Testament. In Matthew we do not hear about the return of the apostles, but in Luke we read that the disciples return rejoicing that even the devils were subject to them.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches to the crowds, who hear him miraculously in their own native language. Three thousand of them rejoice to be baptized. The Acts of the Apostles describe case after case of people hearing about the faith and rejoicing in it. From the Ethiopian eunuch who is instructed and baptized by the deacon Philip to Paul’s jailer and his whole household who rejoice to be baptized, many people receive the great blessings of Jesus at the hands of the Church which Jesus founded.
When I mentioned that Luke describes the rejoicing of those who had been sent by the Lord, this referred not to the Twelve, but to the 72 disciples that Jesus had sent. This means that even today, it is not only the successors to the apostles, but all disciples of the Lord who have this great vocation.
We should all rejoice in this and give thanks to our great Lord, whose provisions, whose plans for the Church include us even 2000 years later.
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