GLOBAL INFLUENCERS AND FISHERS OF MEN - THE 12 APOSTLES with my guest RICARDO ACOSTA LATAPI from Mexico City

Smitten By Faith Issue # 000040 7th May 2022

‘Come. Follow Me,’ Jesus said, ‘I will make you fishers of people.’ - Mark 1:17

Right : Stefano Da Verona 1379-1451   -Mary with the 12 Apostles Manuscript - Tempera and Gold on parchment , J.Paul Getty Museum; Los Angeles, USA

Left : Simon Ushakov 1626-1686 - The Last Supper, Icon- The Gergiev Posad State History and Art Musuem, Moscow

Jesus Christ had 12 Apostles. All of them were very ordinary people; most of them were fishermen; but all the 12 knew Jesus well; they left their lives and everything behind to follow him; and for the 3 years of Jesus’ missionary life on earth, they became his closest companions. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, infused with the strength of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, these same 12 Apostles left Jerusalem and journeyed fearlessly to the far corners of the Roman Empire and beyond ( even to India in the case of the Apostle Thomas ). They set out to boldly proclaim the Christ who had changed them; they preached his message of salvation and eternal life and they wrote all this down in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Later, most of them also willingly died as martyrs for Jesus. In the process these same 12 Apostles; these “first global influencers” ( as described by our special guest, Ricardo Acosta Latapi below ) changed the world - indelibly. Their Gospels have endured for more than 2,000 years and today there are more than 2.4 billion people who observe the teachings of Jesus Christ and call themselves Christians.

Who were these 12 Apostles? Here is a short summary of the ‘Fishers of Men’.

Top : Various views of the ruins of Capernaum- courtesy ©Fr. Thomas Montanaro LC

Bottom Right : The shore at the Sea of Galilee - courtesy of ©Millennials Meet Mary

Bottom Left : View of the Sea of Galilee from the hills above. Courtesy of © Fr. Thomas Montanaro LC

From Capernaum in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus called his first 5 Apostles. They were:

Simon Peter – a fisherman, was the first to be called. Beloved by Jesus, it was to be Simon Peter’s destiny to be the ‘rock’ upon which Jesus would build the Church. In spite of his many obstacles including denying Jesus 3 times when Jesus was arrested, Peter was loyal and faithful to the end. After the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, Peter led the 12 Apostles to preach the faith far and wide and when later, he was arrested by the Romans and sentenced to death, Peter asked to be crucified head downwards as he was not worthy to die as his master did.

Andrew - was the brother of Peter and also a fisherman who was recruited by Jesus at the same time as his brother. He too died a martyr’s death, on the cross, in Greece.

James - Son of Zebedee, another fisherman, was the brother of John the Apostle. With great faith and intellect, James preached extensively in Jerusalem and Judea and when arrested by Herod, he was beheaded and became the first martyr among the 12 Apostles.

John - was the brother of James and in spite of his occasional passionate outbursts, of all the Apostles, John was the most beloved by Jesus and his mother, Mary. He wrote all the books of the Gospels of John and the Revelation. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, John stayed with Jesus and Mary to the end. Before Jesus took his last breath, he entrusted his mother, Mary to the care of John with the words: “Son, behold your mother; and Mother, behold your son.” John looked after Mary until her death. As John the Evangelist, just like the other Apostles, John preached fearlessly far and wide. His life was spared by God and John lived a long life, dying a natural death.

Matthew or Levi - was a tax collector who lived in Capernaum. In spite of his hated profession, Jesus saw the goodness and intellect of Matthew. This was the Apostle who wrote the Gospel of Matthew and the first man to write the teachings of Jesus in Hebrew.

The other Apostles did not come from Capernaum but came from the nearby towns and villages around the Sea of Galilee. These men were:

Bartholomew or Nathaniel - lived in Cana and came from royal parentage ( his father was King of Geshur ). Bartholomew was a great teacher of the scriptures and Jesus called him a true Israelite in whom there’s nothing false. He died a martyr after being flayed alive with knives.

James, Son of Alpheus - was a man of faith who served Jesus well, preaching far and wide and also dying a martyrs death horrifically as his body was sawed into pieces.  The saw became his apostolic symbol.

Jude - was the brother of James the son of Alpheus and like his brother James, he too fearlessly preached the gospel and was killed with arrows at Ararat.

Philip - was from Bethesda and he too died a martyr’s death; by hanging. He requested that his body be wrapped after death in papyrus, not in linen as Jesus was.

Simon the Zealot - was a Canaanite who lived in Galilee. As an apostle, it was significant that he was chosen because he was a zealot, from the fanatical militant Jewish group who chose violence against their Roman masters. But Jesus saw his faith. He did not disappoint. He too died a martyr’s death.

Thomas Didymus - is the Apostle also known as ‘Doubting Thomas’ who was always questioning and yet, he was courageous. He would not believe anything until he had seen for himself. We all know about the well-known incident when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared before the Apostles. But Thomas was not there so he said he did not believe unless he saw Jesus for himself and could touch the wound in his side caused by the spear of the Roman soldier. Even so, this was the same Thomas who was brave enough to preach the Gospel as faraway as the south of India where he died a martyr’s death when he was speared to death by the natives. His tomb is at the St. Thomas Cathedral basilica in Chennai, India.

Judas Iscariot - has been forever immortalised in infamy as the traitor who betrayed Jesus to the high priests of Jerusalem for 30 pieces of silver. Later, in shame, Judas repented and tried to return the money and when this was spurned, he hanged himself.

Matthias - was the Apostle selected to replace Judas. He was selected by the other Apostles by casting lots between him and another known as Barabbas. Although this meant that Matthias was never an Apostle during Jesus’ ministry; he was already one of Jesus’ followers; a firm believer. And when he was made an Apostle, he too preached the Gospel far and wide. He lived a long life, dying a natural death.

In the book, ‘Millennials Meet Mary’, my friend, RICARDO ACOSTA LATAPI from Mexico City who has studied and worked all over the world wrote such an appropriate and delightful commentary on the impact of the 12 Apostles – describing them as probably the world’s first global influencers - that his brilliant words bear repeating here today in Smitten By Faith.

RICARDO ACOSTA LATAPI is from Mexico City.

Ricardo loves to use his creativity to solve problems and create new things. Already as a young boy while growing up, at first playing with his parents' appliances and Lego bricks when he was a child, to creating his own fashion brand and eCommerce business when he was just commencing university. He also likes to keep active and energized by practicing yoga, running and doing sports like rowing and Tae Kwon Do, a discipline at which he has a black belt.

After graduating from University, he moved to Asia where he worked as an Industrial Engineer for more than 10 years. Ricardo’s expertise is in digital strategy, marketing and product management in the technology and consumer goods sectors. He holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering and Project Management and has an MBA from the Asia School of Business in collaboration with MIT Sloan.

On the professional side, Ricardo started his career at Procter & Gamble, Mexico in 2010, joining the newly formed digital marketing team. Later, in 2013 he joined as one of the first employees of Facebook in Latin America, where he led the commercial partnerships with several companies in different industries such as Financial Services, Education, Retail, and Telecommunications. In 2017, after almost 4 years working at Facebook, Ricardo decided to embark and take on a new challenge and decided to move to South East Asia to pursue his Global MBA, a decision that took him to study and to participate in projects in Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City. He then worked in Beijing and worked on scaling DiDi Chuxing’s (the Chinese ride-hailing giant) operations into new markets in Latin America. Today, as I write this, Ricardo is just about to move to New York City to start his new job with Amazon. Good luck Ricardo !

On a more personal note, Ricardo comes from a deeply devout Catholic family and when the Pandemic brought unexpected lockdowns, Ricardo was thankfully in Mexico City which was such a blessing as he was able to spend time with his family, especially with his beloved grandfather before he passed away. As a former diplomat to the Holy See, Ricardo’s grandfather lived to see the publication of Millennials Meet Mary and his grandson’s commentary in the book.

RICARDO ACOSTA LATAPI writes below about the 12 Apostles from the interesting perspective of their social impact as the first global influencers. So, let’s go over to hear from this charming young man - who I think is an influencer himself !

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THE 12 APOSTLES ; OUR FIRST GLOBAL INFLUENCERS

BY RICARDO ACOSTA LATAPI

Mexico City and New York City              May 7th 2022

Domenico Ghirlandaio 1448-1494  -Vocation of the Apostles ; Fresco

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

The Vocation of the Apostles is a magnificent fresco by the Italian (Florentine) Renaissance painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, executed in 1481–1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. It depicts the Gospel narrative of Jesus Christ calling Peter and Andrew to become his disciples. It does not look like the semi-rural lake area which was the Sea of Galilee but it is a composition painted with great detail, as in the case of most  Ghirlandaio paintings and frescoes. The background of the lake, the fishing boats and the surrounding shores with birds swooping up and down, is painted as an extensive landscape stretching far beyond the horizon. In the forefront, we see Jesus blessing the kneeling Peter and Andrew – all with haloes above their heads and the crowds of followers gathered around them. To bear witness to this great moment, Ghirlandaio has painted a very huge crowd - to the left, men and women and to the right, some Florentine noblemen – all finely draped and dressed.

If we could go back in time for 2,000 years to a world with no social media, no TV, no radio and even no books or any type of media, we would still find some of the first popular personalities that made their way to become global “influencers”. In particular, if we could go back to Galilee and Judea of those times, we would observe a Jew that started to gain some popularity and gain a very significant “followers’ base”.  That person’s name is Jesus, and that followers’ base grew quite significantly in the past 2 millennia due to belief and prophetic messages and now, and according to the Vatican official figures, that number stands at 1.2 billion Catholics ( or 2.4 billion Christians ) globally, which is equivalent to doubling up ( and more ) all together the Instagram followers that Cristiano Ronaldo, Ariana Grande and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the top 3 most followed instagrammers have together today.

But who were Jesus’ first “followers”? Well, in fact, in the Catholic religion, we don’t call them “followers” but “Apostles” or “Disciples”, which according to Encyclopaedia Britannica comes from the Greek word, “person sent”. And so, for the first 12, we call them “The 12 Apostles”.

And why those 12? What’s the relationship among them and how does the Virgin Mary relate to them? Or why did Domenico Ghirlandaio dedicate his fresco to the moment in which Jesus is calling Andrew and Peter to become his Apostles ? The answers are not simple and we may need to cite many sources for historical and religious references, but if the 12 had something in common and that is worth for us to reflect on - that is their unconditional love for Jesus, their absolute loyalty and their undiminished faith. 

So, I ask myself and I ask you: Who are those 12 for you? Among all those “followers” and social media “friends” we have, who are those 12 that love us unconditionally, keep all our secrets, and are there for us no matter what happens?

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