“And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,”
He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach — the two-part purpose of the twelve is: to be with him (permanent companionship, formation through proximity) and to be sent out to preach (mission, the proclamation of the kingdom). The order is significant: being with Jesus precedes being sent from Jesus. The disciples must first be formed by Jesus' presence before they can effectively represent his message. The word for sent out (apostellō) is the root of apostle (apostolos) — the twelve are the apostles, the sent ones, but their sending is conditioned on their prior formation through intimate proximity to Jesus.
Church Fathers on Mark 3:14
After having forbidden the evil spirits to preach Him, He chose holy men, to cast out the unclean spirits, and to preach the Gospel.
Luke, however, says that He went up to pray, for after the shewing forth of miracles He prays, teaching us that we should give thanks, when we obtain any thing good, and refer it to Divine grace.
Or spiritually, Christ is the mount, from which living waters flow, and milk is procured for the health of infants; whence the spiritual feast of fat things is made known, and whatsoever is believed to be most highly good is established by the grace of that Mountain.
Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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