Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth....
We always do well to consider our own calling, as Saint Paul urges us.
Several years ago I attended a workshop in which the leaders asked the participants to share their own experience of injustice. Several had suffered or witnessed racism, and others were humiliated by sexual or gender discrimination. A few participants had travelled and seen squalid poverty.
And then they asked us to share mystical moments in our lives when we felt the presence of God in some palpable fashion. It might have been through dreams, visions, or auditions (voices.) Most people have such experiences and they remember them when asked, although they might never have shared these "crazy impulses" with others.
The scriptures tell us of the call of patriarchs, matriarchs, and prophets when they were called to serve the Lord in some particular, unexpecteed capacity. The prophets Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Jesus were called before they were born! Samuel was a child serving at a Jewish shrine. Judith and Esther faced the annihilation of their people and used their feminine charms to destroy the enemy. Daniel was aroused to action when a woman was falsely accused of adultery. Saint Paul was knocked to the ground on the road to Damascus.
Very often, the precise circumstances of that moment when we are called determine the message we should deliver. Saint Paul, learning that his attacks on Christians assailed the Lord personally, realized the Church is the Body of Christ. He also became a great comforter of the afflicted as he recalled his own afflictions.
Many are hearing the call of the Holy Spirit as we suffer concurrent crises of the pandemic, suicide, drug abuse, racism, neglect of the elderly, poverty and climate change. Many alcoholics, turning their life and will over the care of God, seek other men and women who still suffer that fatal disease.
We do well to consider our own calling often. Christians are called to action; no one just comes along for the ride. If, at one time, some layfolks thought their part was to pay, pray, and obey while priests and sisters did the work of the church, those days are long gone, and good riddance.
Daily we remember our calling, renew our commitment in prayer, and make disciples of all nations in whatever fashion the Lord directs.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.