Jesus appointed the Apostles “that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” The three apostolic tasks — to be with Jesus, to preach, to drive out demons — are not limited the the original twelve. All Catholics are called to be apostles and hence should be with Jesus in prayer, preach if not in words at least by the quality of our lives, and drive out the demons of hatred and cruelty and prejudice. We don’t ordinarily think of “being with Jesus” as one of the roles of an apostle. We associate apostles with going out into the whole world. But before we go out we first have to be with Jesus.
