The Twelve

     Even if you do not play the lottery, numbers mean something.  Some people look at dream books, or calculate the number of an event or an action.  Some people give numeric value to a name or a person.

     Twelve is one such number that has great symbolism in the scriptures and various traditions.  Twelve is the number of that which is complete, that which forms a whole, a perfect and harmonious unit.  It speaks of fullness, the completion and integrality of a thing.

     From all of his followers, Jesus chooses twelve and gives them "authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness."  He gave them the commission to proclaim that "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand."  In today's gospel from Matthew we hear who they are: Simon called Peter, Andrew his brother, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean and Judas Iscariot.  Not all were perfect - they doubted, they complained, they ran away in fear, one even betrayed him. Yet in their brother, Jesus, they found forgiveness, redemption and strength. They formed that perfect foundation for the Church, the new Jerusalem, for they were "the twelve".  Even when the betrayer departed, he had to be replaced to bring completion.

     There was another group of twelve, the sons of Jacob/Israel, who formed a family that provided a perfect whole for the tribes of Israel.  Their story is a wonderful story, one that we get a glimpse of in Genesis 41 & 42 today.  They were not all perfect either.  Yet in their betrayed brother, Joseph, they found forgiveness, redemption and strength.

     In the vision of the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City of God, the city was built upon twelve courses of stone to provide a strong and complete foundation.   Upon this "rock" Jesus has built his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

     The power of THE TWELVE is the foundation of our lives.

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     And speaking of completion and wholeness in the number twelve, today the Church celebrates Maria Goretti, a girl whose inspiring life was lived in twelve short years.  She lived an exemplary life from 1890 to 1902 in a small Italian town with her family.  She resisted the sexual advances of a man who had threatened to rape her, and in anger he stabbed her multiple times.  She died within a day, and in that time became a Child of Mary, received the Last Sacrament, and specifically forgave her murderer.  She was canonized in 1950, in the largest crowd to that time gathered for such an occasion, with her mother present.  Courage has no limits.