“Jesus calls each one by name.”

Today the Gospel invites us to contemplate Jesus at a key moment in his public life. It is the moment of the election of the twelve, whom He called Apostles. The twelve simple men, his followers, in whose hands his mission would soon be left and on whom would depend the life of that seed of the Kingdom that He would leave sown in the world. Let’s look at the details: Jesus spends the night in prayer before choosing them; by choosing them he knows each one by name. Elsewhere it is said that they were chosen to be with Him and to be sent. Then Jesus stops with them on a plain where they had been followed by a huge crowd of those waiting to be healed by Jesus, and He begins to teach them. Jesus continues to choose those He needs in every age, and today He calls all of us who have been baptized. He wants us to feel chosen and sent to continue the mission of those twelve because there are great multitudes in this world who need us. Jesus calls us by name; are we willing to say yes to him and follow him?