Second Sunday In Ordinary Time
The theme of God’s call is perhaps the most preached about theme. The reason is simple. Stories of God’s call to human beings occur quite frequently in the Scripture. There is the call of Abraham, the call of Moses, the call of Samuel in today’s first reading, the call of David, the call of Isaiah, the call of the Mary and the call of the Apostles in today’s gospel reading. And, if we compare these stories we realize that there are common threads that run through each of these stories.
1) First, each of these individuals was someone from whom you could not expect much. Abraham was childless, Moses was a fugitive, David but a shepherd, Samuel only a youth, the disciples most of them fishermen. Yet God calls these people to fulfil a particular task.
2) Second, each of their call ends by them making an unreasonable surrender to the God who calls. Abraham is obedient even though he is childless, Moses doesn’t understand how he will free his people from a powerful Pharaoh; Jeremiah complains to God that he is but a youth; Samuel does not even realize that it is God who was calling him that night; Mary wonders how she can be the mother of Jesus without relationship with a man; and when the disciples ask Jesus,” Where are you staying,” he merely says, “Come and see.” And yet each one of them unconditionally yielded to God’s call. Mary’s response is the most unreasonable and yet the best, “Behold I am the servant of the Lord.”
3) Third, God accomplishes unimaginable things through these people. Abraham becomes the father of the Jewish people, Samuel becomes a prophet, Moses leads the people of Israel to liberation, Mary gives birth to God’s Son, the disciples witness of the life of Christ.
What does this mean for us?
1. Lumen Gentuim, the Vatican II document on the Church says, “All faithful of Christ, whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of Charity.” But what do we mean by the call? The call is that which somehow connects me with eternity. The best to understand my call is to ask the question, “Of all the things that I do in life, which ones are relevant for eternity?” Responding to the call means identifying this area or these areas and nurturing these areas in the same way that Abraham, Moses, Mary of the disciples did.
2. Discerning what God calls us to is the most difficult part. The question is, how do we discover what God is calling us to? There is no single answer to the question. But we can suggest some pointers. Each of the ones who were called in the scriptures was taken by surprise when they were alone. Spending time prayer, then, is an important part of discernment. It is only in prayer that we can connect ourselves to eternity. An undiscerned life is a wasted life.
3. What does the awareness of a call do for us? The greatest advantage of discerning one’s call is that gives us the meaning of life. It gives us the framework within which to live our lives. It gives us a way of knowing how we are doing in life. It gives us a way to compare our lives to something meaningful.
In the Eucharist we discover and meet the God who has created us and called us to God’s purpose. As we receive Christ in the Eucharist, like the disciples, let us too hear Christ’s call. May we respond to this call with all our hearts. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph