August 24, 2007
Surprise redux
Bartholomew was probably as surprised as the next guy when Jesus chose him as an apostle (Mt 10). Nevertheless, there he was without a miter to his name, charged with a nonstipe job to heal sick Jewish dropouts and raise a few from the dead, including cleansing any who were leprous and exorcising any daemons that got in the way.
It was a tough and dirty job, but it was one that Simon, the Samaritan sorcerer, was willing to die for and more than likely wished he had (Acts 8.18-21). Anyhow, it all helped start what we get so carried away with that we now call it “apostolic succession,” only with a few added puffery and trappings and not so many exorcisms. We seem to prefer and claim the mainstream and avoid the creeks and rivulets where those other itinerant mendicants loved their Lord and prayed and preached and settled for a little apostolic success now and then.
They did, however, most of them, just like old Bartholomew, end up getting called a “saint” and with their own red-letter day on the calendar. But for whatever that’s worth, it sure cost them a bundle, let alone those cross dispositions and all.
(This rerun is turning into an August 24 St Bartholomew’s Day special, but so far, nobody’s picked it up as a DVD.)
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos