Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach. Twelve was a symbolic number in Israel — the sons of Jacob who became the twelve tribes. In naming the twelve apostles Jesus is claiming to be doing something new, to becoming a new kind of Chosen People. But notice that besides that symbolic and apostolic role the twelve had another function: “that they might be with him.” Jesus needed people in his life. The myth of the Lone Ranger, of John Wayne riding off alone into the sunset was not how Jesus operated. He knew how important it was to have people to be with him. They were a motley crew who were clueless most of the time as St. Mark amply demonstrates but they were the community that Jesus relied upon for support. Community matters.
