The disciples learned from Jesus what their mission was to be. They were to preach the good news and to heal. The Acts of the Apostles (3: 1-10) provide a beautiful example of how that was carried out. It is the story of Peter and John and the cure of the cripple at the gate of the temple.
It would be very discouraging if we thought that to be disciples of Jesus we had to work miracles like that. But that cure and similar incidents in the lives of the first disciples were not the usual pattern of their mission.
The mission of the disciples was to communicate the message of God’s love and forgiveness to each person with whom they came into contact. The question, then, for anyone who wants to be a true disciple is: Can do that? Can I communicate the message of God’s love to each person with whom I come into contact? It is not easy to communicate a message of love to persons who, humanly speaking, are unlovable. At times, by our actions we all make ourselves unlovable. We certainly have the experience of others being unlovable. That’s why it isn’t easy to communicate a message of love to all with whom we come into contact. But that is what Jesus asks of his disciples. As true disciples we need to focus on Jesus himself as he models such behavior, going so far as to die for us while we were still unlovable.
The call to discipleship might be described as a challenge to change the world. That description is true but ambiguous. Very few, if any, can be world-changers like the first disciples of Jesus. The world we are primarily challenged to change is our inner world, to become totally dedicated to, totally focused on the person of Jesus. When that happens, the world is changed for the better.
Being a faithful disciple means simply that, despite our limitations and our weaknesses, we keep trying to communicate the message of God’s love to all with whom we come into contact. None of us has all the gifts, the talents we think we should have to carry out that mission. But the promise of Jesus to his first disciples to send the Spirit to teach them and be with them extends also to us.