Picking works of art to match the Sunday Gospels during this part of Ordinary Time gets tricky, because many of the Gospels focus on Jesus specifically teaching about this or that and whether he is speaking about divorce or expanding on the meaning of the Eucharist, the “picture” often looks the same: Jesus talking.

When it comes to a parable, it’s easier, because one can illustrate the story — e.g., the sower in the field or the Prodigal Son. But when it comes to something more abstract, we sometimes have to be careful, lest we hastily make connections that aren’t there. That said, I warn readers that in coming weeks I may have to make stretches.

Take this week. In looking through possible art, I came upon a work by Duccio that a previous author had used to illustrate the “sending out of the Apostles.” It bothered me because it showed only 11 Apostles; Judas did not get a waiver on this first missionary journey. Digging further, I discovered that what that earlier writer had taken as illustrating Jesus sending his Apostles out was not strictly related to today’s Gospel (which takes place early in Jesus’ Public Ministry) but to the sending of the Eleven into the world at the time of the Ascension.

The work I chose is clearly connected with this Gospel, since the painter---James Tissot — entitled it “He Sent Them Out Two by Two.” 

When Jesus called his first Apostles, as we learned in the early weeks of Ordinary Time last January/February, we saw he immediately incorporated them into his public outreach. Invited to “come and see,” they witness the exorcism of the Capernaum demoniac, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and other sick and possessed people in that village, and the cure of a leper (Mark 1:16-45). 

Now, Jesus says, it’s your turn.

Like seminarians in their first years of study, sent out for “apostolic work” in some pastoral setting (often a hospital, nursing home or prison), the Apostles have witnessed and are now expected to pass it on. They are not to be silent spectators but the further hands of Jesus. Mark and Matthew (10:1-42) both speak of sending the Twelve out for “apostolic work.” Luke (10:1-24) speaks of an even greater pool of disciples (72) similarly dispatched. 

Perhaps the sending of the Twelve inadvertently causes us to think that the work of evangelization is “priest’s business.” In some sense, it is, especially as Mark describes it: the Apostles go out to “preach repentance” (Mark 6:12) and heal people spiritually (exorcise) and physically. The latter two kinds of healing are especially associated with the sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick.

On the other hand, the task of “preaching repentance” is every Christian’s job, because it is the essence of the Evangelion, the “Good News.” The first words out of Jesus’ mouth in Mark’s Gospel (1:14) are, “The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and believe the Good News!” The essential prerequisite to “believing the Good News” is turning from what is contrary to it, i.e., sin. That message is every Christian’s, whether it be preaching it to himself or to those around him (e.g., a parent who reminds his child what is right and what is wrong or takes him to confession). One of the spiritual works of mercy every Christian can perform is “to admonish the sinner.” 

I make these points because some of our Protestant brothers and sisters are far more adept at doing what Jesus tells his Apostles today to do — go out and proclaim repentance and healing — than we are. Many Catholics have had the experience of Seventh Day Adventists or Jehovah’s Witnesses ringing the doorbell. Young Mormon men, for example, often spend two years of full-time service spreading their message.

Karol Wojtyła (the future St. John Paul II) wrote Sources of Renewal as a guide for his Archdiocese of Kraków to implement the Second Vatican Council. It’s not a series of directives, as many American dioceses “implemented” the Council (celebrate Mass in English, turn altars around, etc.). It is deeper, asking what “attitudes” should inform the way a Catholic should live his faith after Vatican II.

One of those “attitudes” Wojtyła calls “missionary.” Catholics are called to share their faith. Catholics most fully embody the “full and active participation” that Vatican II calls them to by being witnesses to that faith amid the concrete conditions of their station in life:

“The Church is always in a station of mission. As will be seen, this does not initially imply a function or institution, but defines the nature of the Church and indicates its close link with the mystery of the divine Trinity through the mission of the Persons: the Son who comes to us from the Father in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son. In this sense, and on the basis of this reality, we can and should define the attitude of every human being in the Church/ Everyone in the Church is in a ‘state of mission,’ as is the whole Church …”

The Church is on mission because God remains “on mission” to redeem and sanctify human beings until the end of history. We are not passive spectators but members of the Mystical Body of Christ — that work is ours, too. That is what recent popes — John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis — all mean by “the new evangelization.” It’s not a new Gospel but a renewed effort to spread it.

Finally, some comments on the dispatch of the Apostles “two by two.” Because what they are doing is not their work but the work of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Apostles are not lone agents. They go out “two by two” both to witness to the communal nature of salvation and for support against dangers.

Dangers? Yes — not just those facing them but those they might create. 

Regarding the dangers facing them: Jesus sends them out with practically everything spiritual and practically nothing material. Mark does not say much about it, but the parallel text in Matthew Chapter 10 expands long on the reality of persecution of the “Name” in which the Apostles act.

Regarding the dangers they might create: the Apostles are constantly tempted to pride (“even the demons are subject to us in your name — Luke 10:17, often emphasizing the “us” over the “your”). Imagine the possible temptations to a Judas sent out on his own without pocket money? These duos better reflect Jesus, because “where two or three are gathering in my Name, I am there” — Matthew 18:20.)

Finally, proclaiming the Gospel implies duties on both sides: the one who has received the Gospel must be a missionary, but the one who hears it must make an existential decision. The Apostles are not sent on a lecture circuit. They are sent to call on people to give up sin and accept the Gospel. Their response is not indifferent, even to God who, while he “so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son” also reminds us that “whoever does not believe stands condemned already” (John 3:16-20).

These twosomes are to be Scripturally valid witnesses to the moral and existential decisions of their listeners, not just by “shaking off the dust of the town” (Mark 6:11) of those who reject them but because, even in the Old Testament, conviction depends on “the mouth of two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:15; cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1, Matthew 18:16, 1 Timothy 5:19). 

French painter James Tissot captures the moment of their dispatch. Jesus is the central figure. He stands heads above all the others on a small hillock. The pairs of disciples come and kneel before him, whose Word and Teaching they are to bear. He lays hands on them, the quintessential biblical sign of empowerment.

In keeping with the biblical text, they bear staffs and sandals. At least seven pairs are already on their ways in all four directions from Christ. How do we explain then 20 disciples? Perhaps they’re the 72 Luke speaks of as being sent, in which case we are clearly near the end of the dispatch. With Jesus, we have 21 figures on the canvas (I assume the man directly behind Jesus’ back has a companion) — three and seven were both considered holy and perfect numbers, so 3 X 7 = 21. 

Although Jesus stands tallest, the whole scene is set against the whole of the countryside of Israel, with three towns in the distance. It’s fitting they traverse this rocky and barren terrain, because it augurs some of the stony opposition they will encounter. Jesus does not promise them a rose garden.

Now these men are sent to the whole of Israel; at Jesus’ Ascension, they will “go to all nations” (Matthew 28:19). If these are Luke’s 72 (some manuscripts say 70), they are clearly allusions to the 70 elders representing all of Israel appointed by Moses (Numbers 11: 16,24) and the 70 to whom the translation of the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) is attributed.

In any event, one of these men departing Jesus’ presence has his eyes on the viewer. (He also sports more color and a striped cloak as well as standing in the foreground.) For Tissot, this is not just an historical painting — he’s “coming for you.”