Pastor
~ Just under a year ago, the Cardinals of the Church chose a new Pope. Next fall, Americans will choose a new Congress. Now not every choice is so consequential. Making choices is a part of life, and we do it all day every day. Do I wake up or hit the snooze button? Do I have that donut or not? Should I go to the gym or skip it? And everyone’s favorite question: what should we have for dinner? But friends, here is a choice that is very consequential: God chose you on the day of our baptism to be his beloved son or daughter. All throughout salvation history, God has chosen people, men, women, and children, for certain tasks that need to be done. The Lord looks into our hearts, finds the heart he needs, and calls that heart to service. Our readings today remind us of three unlikely people chosen by God.
In the first reading, from the book of Samuel, we hear the Lord say, “I have chosen my king.” The Lord chooses David, which was actually a pretty strange choice! Jesse had eight sons, but God by-passed the seven older sons and chooses Jesse’s youngest son, David, a shepherd boy, probably a teenager. He was chosen by God to lead the Israelites. David marched into Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant, and by his charismatic leadership, David captured the allegiance of all the tribes of Israel, and made Israel a great nation.
An even more unlikely choice is Paul, the writer of our second reading. Paul was a staunch Pharisee, one who persecuted Christians. But God chose him to be a great apostle to the Gentiles, when he was knocked to the ground on the road to Damascus and had an encounter with the Lord Jesus, who asked him, “Why do you persecute me?”
Then the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus chose a man blind from birth. In those days, blindness, any disability, was thought to be a punishment for sin, either your own sins or the sins of your parents. But the gospel story tells us that Jesus chose this man to teach a lesson in faith. Jesus rubbed mud into the blind man’s eyes and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. By showing he could make the blind see, Christ wanted the Pharisees to confront their own blindness and hypocrisy, and to see that Christ is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of God.
So, yes, God chooses curious people. A teenager to be king, Paul the persecutor of the early Christian Church, and a blind beggar chosen to show up the Pharisees. But that’s the point: God chooses. God looks into our hearts, finds the heart he wants, and calls that heart to service. These days leading up to Easter, we are praying for our catechumens and candidates, especially Lexie and Matt and Sam and Andy from our own parish, that God has chosen for the Easter sacraments. And friends, all of us have been called and chosen. God has looked into our hearts, and through our baptism, God has called us to service, to give a witness of faith that only you can give. But if we are being honest, so many of us give a very weak answer when God calls.
Consider this: the fastest growing denomination in the United States are nones. Folks who profess or practice no religion whatsoever. Over two-thirds of those people say they believe in God, but they put no practice to that belief.
For too many Christians, prayer is not a part of their daily routine. Even if they come to Mass on Sunday, many people have no awareness of God the rest of the week.
So many Christians do nothing to help the poor: no contributions to charity, no time as a volunteer. Yet Christ told us, explicitly, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick.
We all can do much better, and Lent is a time to try and to ask for the grace we need to respond to God’s call. By our baptism, God empowers each of us to become a light to the world. We let God’s light shine, we give a strong response, we give our “yes” to God by proudly living our faith, attending Mass every Sunday, praying, doing good works for others, especially the poor, and encouraging others to do the same.
Sometimes God calls us to light up the world when we suffer, by offering our sacrifices and struggles for a greater good… and by learning from our mistakes.
Each day we can light up the world by small acts of kindness, alleviating the sadness of others by our generosity.
A great time for the light of Christ to shine is when we are face to face with sin, and we are called to choose wisely, to speak out against injustice, and to challenge the status-quo.
We dispel the darkness of doubt when we learn about our faith, when we take time to pray, when our faith becomes based on a real, personal relationship with Christ, who calls us and chooses us because he loves us.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Live as children of the light.” In this world darkened by sin, God chooses us and calls us to let the light of Christ shine. Lent is rapidly coming to a close, so I encourage you to spend some time looking into your heart and considering your response to God. Be honest about your faith, your generosity, your time in prayer, and ask yourself: Is the world a brighter place because of me? Take strength from this Eucharist! After all, God has chosen you to be a light to the world!
