Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I love to play games of all kinds. Some of my favorite games as a child were team games--football, dodgeball, kickball. I have distinct memories of grade school out on the playground or in gym class. We would identify two individuals to be captains and they would, one-by-one, select members for their team until everyone was chosen. There was this hopeful desire to be chosen first--it is very exciting to be wanted for a team. Yet, there was also a fear of being chosen last. However, as I reflect on it today, the truly powerful piece of the process is that everyone was chosen. We all wanted to play; we were all chosen to participate.
God is the ultimate team captain; you and I are chosen to be on God’s team. As Christ reminds us in the Gospel today, we are worthy to be chosen. “Even the hairs of your head have all been counted” (Lk 12:7); “From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind” (Ps 33:13). And we are not merely chosen by God to sit on the team bench, we are chosen for mission. Being a member of God’s “team” means that our lives have purpose and meaning. We are to go out and bear fruit for the kingdom. No matter how “unqualified” we may feel at times to make a difference, we must remember that God does not see us that way. Rather, we are given the grace for love and kindness, for justice and peace, for prayer and action. Earlier in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul shares that God chose us before the foundations of the world. Not in the beginning, but before the beginning, we belong to God! We are chosen for holiness.
Pope Francis likens this concept to that of expecting parents. “We, each one of us, has been dreamed of by God like a father and a mother dream of the child they are expecting.” This resonates deeply for LeeAnn and me currently as we prepare to welcome our fourth child early next year. We want each of our children to know and understand that they are loved, they are worthy, and they have purpose. We are chosen to live with a sense of belonging; we are chosen for God’s team. Our identity as faithful disciples lies in our willingness to embark on a journey to encounter Christ daily. We are men and women on a journey to do good, to go forward, to think, talk, and act like Jesus.
May God Bless You,
- Brandon Meyer