”Whoever receives, receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” (Matthew 10:40)
The Shepherd whose heart is moved with pity for His sheep continues to address the twelve whom He has chosen to shepherd with Him. He sends them out not as representative of a distant Shepherd but as the very temple in whom the Shepherd and His Father dwell with the Holy Spirit. When the shepherds show up, the Holy Trinity shows up.
When we welcome these twelve and their successors with a cup of water, we are welcoming the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who dwell within them. The bishops, priests and deacons are chosen from among the sheep and sent to the rest of the sheep as the very embodiment of the Holy Trinity who teaches, governs and sanctifies the sheep through these chosen men.
We as sheep follow the only one true and good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone can lead us all, teach us all and transform us all into divine sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. It is from the Father that all our loved ones have come. It is our Father for whom everyone we love is crying and searching restlessly. It is not us that they have the deepest longing for. They come to us from the divine and are longing to return to the divine.
We do not know the Father unless we love the Son first and above all else. The Son alone can reveal the Father to us, teach us about Him, lead us to Him and make us divine like Him.
The Son chooses the twelve and their successors to teach, rule and sanctify with Him the people of every nation. These chosen men come to us as sons with the Son. They come with the sacred and pierced heart of the Son, and together with the Son, they are dying for us that we may have life eternal with our Father and with each other