We hear the names of the Twelve in today's gospel reading. Imagine Jesus summoning them and calling the roll: 'Simon Peter?' - 'Present!'; 'Andrew?' - 'Present!'; 'James Zebedee?' - 'Here!'; 'John Zebedee?' - 'Yes!'; 'Philip?' - 'Present!'...

In the last century, in El Salvador and Argentina, at a time when the death squads' disappearance tactics ran rampant, thousands of catechists were made to disappear. But they were not lost to their communities. Their communities called out each individual's name in liturgical celebrations, and invariably someone in the assembly would answer 'Present!' in the named person's stead. In this manner the catechists' presences were kept alive and their voices resounding through the mouths of their caring brothers and sisters.

In a letter to catechists, written on the Feast of Saint Pius X in 2003, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, reminds catechists that they are called in their frailty, to go into a world of division and fragmentation. The falls, the daily struggles, failures, mud and exhaustion, make the vocation full. In this experience of limitation and grace is manifest the frailty of the life of Christ, and the saving good news is thus proclaimed.