These are the names of the Twelve apostles: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother
Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew;
Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon,
the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray him. Jesus sent these Twelve
on mission, with the instructions: “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan
town. Go, instead, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go, and proclaim this message:
The kingdom of heaven is near.

Reflect

“We are never sent alone.” The Lord calls us, and he calls us by name (cf. Isa. 43:1).
He calls us while respecting our identity as human persons. In fact, he builds on whatever
we already have as individuals gifted by God. In the Gospel for today, Jesus called the
Twelve Apostles (cf. Mk. 3:13-19; Lk. 6:12-16). The word apostle (cf. apostolos) means
“the one who is sent.” Jesus called the Twelve to be with him while he was accomplishing
his earthly mission. Jesus does not only call us for nothing. He calls us for a particular mission.
We may reflect on the fact that Jesus called twelve of them. We are not called alone. We
are called to be together in doing the mission which Jesus had inaugurated. Let us also
bear in mind that we are never sent alone. As followers of Jesus, we must always strive
to work together to become a community-in-mission. Jesus called the Twelve not
because they were all of the same personalities. They were from the different walks of life,
with different orientations and different temperaments – yet they rallied behind Jesus.

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