Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
God has a plan for you. It is a plan that only you can carry out. We assume we all know that, but rarely do we state it so plainly. I hope I’m not the first person to ever tell you this. But in case I am, I’m going to repeat myself, God has a plan for you.
God has something wonderful and amazing in store for you. You have a role to play and you have a purpose. God calls each and everyone of us to something. We hear Jesus in the Gospel reading say, “...because for this purpose I have been sent." God sends us all on a mission.
We then have to choose how to respond. We can accept God’s mission for us or we can ignore it, that power rests within us. In our first reading we hear the words of Saint Paul to the first Christians in the town of Corinth, he says, “For we are God's co-workers.”
This is something that is very important for us to think about today. “We are God's co-workers.”
We are not called to live this mission alone. God asks us to work together to help one another live out the mission that God calls us to. We also have the examples of the Saints.
Throughout the year, we celebrate various Saints in the Church, women and men who give us examples of the numerous ways that we can think, talk and act like Jesus. Today we celebrate Saint Teresa of Calcutta, you may also know her as Mother Teresa.
God called her to a very special mission. God's call was her vocation. Her vocation was more than her life as a nun, but the very special mission God gave her. Yours is the very special mission God is calling you to. In other words, vocation is the word that we use to describe the way in which God is calling us to be a Saint! God calls each of us to be Saints.
How we go about trying to be Saints is going to look different from one another. Some of us will be called to go to far away places and care for people who are struggling with poverty and sickness, like Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Some will be called to be teachers like Saint John Bosco. Others will be called to be good caretakers of our environment like Saint Francis of Assisi. Others will be called to speak up to those in power, like Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero. Still others of us will be called to be nurse like Saint Maria Hasselblad. And God will call others in other ways.
Today, ask God about your mission. Take just a few moments of quiet to pray. In that quiet prayer, ask God, what is the mission you are sending me on? Throughout this week, when you pray, perhaps before you go to sleep, keep asking God that question, what is the mission you are sending me on?
- Will Marsh