It is a fact of life that all mothers wish their children to do well in life and are always proud of their achievements, no matter how small they may be.

Three mothers were discussing their sons, two of whom had followed a vocation into the Catholic Church. The first proud mother said, "My son is a Parish Priest and when he enters a room, people call him Father. The second mother said, "My son has done really well in the church, has worked his way up and is now a Cardinal and when he enters a room people call him Your Eminence. The third mother smiled knowingly and said, "My son is an athlete, six foot tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes and when he enters a room people say, "Oh my God."

When you look at the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus, you would be forgiven for saying, "Oh my God," what on earth were you thinking about when you picked this bunch of individuals. Are you planning to start a church, change the face of the earth and encourage people to follow you with this lot?"

The chosen twelve were fishermen, tradesmen, a terrorist and a tax collector - so what was Jesus looking for? All these men were flawed and played power games and fought among themselves as to who was the greatest and when the "crunch time" came they fell like dominoes. Judas betrayed him for money, Peter denied he even knew him three times and the rest of the apostles ran for their lives. So that takes care of the theory that Jesus was looking for the strong and virtuous to follow him.

So when we look at the twelve apostles, whom do we really see? Surely we must recognise ourselves in all of them! For they were all sinners striving to become saints and as Jesus said, he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.