Jesus "calls" twelve ordinary peasants to be his companions, not just to be with him but to be sent to the "lost" people of Israel. 'Come' is God's most favourite word in the Scriptures. 'Come and See' is Jesus' invitation to the first disciples. (Jn 1:35ff). The entire meaning of the Scriptures is not in the message of Christ, but in our personal encounter with Christ. (Thomas Merton). The Scriptures are not history but stories of our lifes, all these things happen to us. "God comes to us disguised as our life."

The disciples are sent to awaken, much like the yeast hidden in the dough.., the kingdom already present in the people...the poor, the outcast, the lost, the little ones, the sinners.

What mattered to Jesus was people and their needs. Everything else was relative to that.

Jesus speaks of God's reign on earth, not as an exclusively future event that we must sit back and wait for. God's kingdom is a present reality- it has already arrived among us.

We don't have to wait for signs and portents. We can detect the finger of God in what is already happening- the ever-increasing hunger and thirst for God and Spiritualty. The disciples, through their authority of love and service will heal this need.