So I sent them into the world
At 20,28-38; Ps 67; Jn 17,11b-19
5 JUNE
Jesus speaks with the present to the Father, as if he had already risen and ascended into heaven. He does not tell the truth he says to the Father alone, he also tells it to his Apostles. How did the Father send Christ Jesus into the world? He sent him full of the Holy Spirit to fulfil the mission of salvation and redemption of every man. How did Jesus complete his mission? In the Holy Spirit, obeying to the Father until death by the cross. The Son has said or done nothing by his will. He has said and done everything by the will of the Father. Thus the Father sent the Son. Thus the Son sent his Apostles. They have to fulfil his mission: proclaiming and doing all his will, in the Holy Spirit, without ever turning right or left. There is no autonomy in the mission, but only obedience. There are no initiatives, but listening.
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Gv 20,19-23). Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28,18-20).
He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs (Mk 16,15-20). Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And (behold) I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24,45-49).
If the Apostles owe very pure obedience to Christ, they have been sent by Christ, they have no relation with the Father. As the Son has surrendered himself to the Father making himself an instrument of his glory, so the Apostles must hand themselves over to Christ to be instruments of his glory. If the Apostles even exclude Christ from the mystery of true salvation, what glory do they give to Christ? Being Christ the glory of the Father, they do not even give glory to the Father. It is the total failure of the mission. But if the mission fails, even the Apostles have failed. It makes no sense to be called Apostles of Jesus.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
From the truth of the Father is the truth of Christ. From the truth of Christ is the truth of the Apostle. If the Apostle deprives Christ of his truth, even the Apostle deprives himself of his truth. What truth might an Apostle without truth, give to the world? His mission is useless.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that the Apostle takes his truth back. He is from Christ.