When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
Acts 1: 15
The “they” so far in Acts had been the 11 apostles. They go to the upper room, the site of their assembly and prayer in the coming days, and the site of Pentecost.
The Twelve were the highest ranking group in the earliest years of the Church. Recall that Jacob had 12 sons, and they were the origin of the 12 tribes of Israel. The community of early Christians saw themselves as the “new Israel: with a “new covenant” and the Twelve symbolized this.
But external rank and internal holiness are two different things – as is evident from the Twelve chosen by Jesus, and Church leaders ever since. The list through the centuries is a checkered one, with some extraordinarily holy, and some otherwise.
Of course, all of us who follow “the Way” have checkered lives. We don’t claim to be the elite of the elite. That’s why we start Mass by saying aloud, “Lord have mercy.” We’re at our best when we acknowledge that we are sinners.
Lord have mercy…on all of us. On me.
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