The first thing that needs to be done in any discussion of the characteristics and mission of today's apostle
is to restore the strength of the word "apostle" itself. Too often it has been impressed into use in connection
with a variety of relatively worthy, but relatively trivial, secular tasks, or it has become flaccid from being
stretched to include all manner of pious activities engaged in from all manner of motives Jacques Loew sets out in the early pages of this book to restore some of the vigor and the precision the word had in its original use for Christians. As part of this process he puts strong emphasis on the word "as" in the phrase of Christ: "As my father has sent me, so also I send you." (And the significance of the word "as" is echoed in other places: In the title of the book itself, where St. Paul refers to Moses acting fearlessly - "Is if he had seen the invisible"; and again in Christ's injunction to be perfect "As your heavenly father is perfect.")