As much as Jesus tried helping the Apostles understand why he had come, they just didn’t get it. Judas betrays Jesus. Simon Peter doesn’t know where Jesus is going, and Peter is foretold that he will deny Jesus three times. As often as these guys mess up, I sympathize deeply with them, because I am sure that, if I were in their shoes, I’d be just as confused. Yet, there is always something that strikes me about the fact that these are the people that Jesus called to stand by his side, to pray with him, to carry on his message. These past 40 days, we too have been invited to stand with Jesus, to pray with him and to carry on his message. He knows that we’re not perfect. Jesus did not call the Apostles in spite of their sins; he called them because he knew they were deserving of mercy, just as we are.

  • In what other ways can I relate to the Apostles in today’s Gospel?
  • How does Jesus invite me out of my sinfulness to carry God’s message?

—Marcos Gonzales, a Jesuit scholastic of the California province, is completing his masters of social work at Loyola University Chicago and interning with the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department.