Called and Chosen

The Catholic Liturgy for the 15^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 15, 2018. Amos 7:12-15, Ephesians 1:3-14, Mark 6:7-13. Theme: Called and Chosen.

Have you ever wondered why it is that out of the billions of people who inhabit planet Earth, you and I have been gifted with the Christian Faith? How is it that we are among the 30% of the world’s population that has received the grace and faith of baptism?  This is the great mystery of being called and chosen by God, to be a people uniquely His own, and it is what today’s readings are all about.  

In the first reading we encounter Amos minding his own business as a shepherd and gardener when suddenly God calls him to become one of his chosen prophets. In the second reading, St. Paul tells us that we have been blessed by Christ and chosen in Him to become God’s holy people, destined for Heaven.  The Gospel shows us the twelve apostles who were just ordinary guys with everyday jobs mostly as fishermen, one of them a greedy tax collector. They had wives and families and were living pretty much just like us. They were no better than most other people. And yet they were called and chosen to carry on Jesus’ powerful ministry of preaching, healing the sick and expelling demons.

This mystery of God’s calling and choosing brings to mind a powerful experience from my childhood.  If you were like me then you might recall how the neighborhood kids would gather in a local field for a game of ball. The older guys, the jocks of the neighborhood, were of course always the captains. The rest of us wannabes lined up for the ritual of choosing up sides. I could hit the ball pretty well but couldn’t run to save my life. While my typical at bat could send the ball far into the outfield, I’d be lucky to pull a single out of what most guys could turn into a double or, for the fastest, maybe a triple. And so, I dreaded those line-ups before my peers.

But there was this one guy, a jock named Charles, who even at our young age stood head over shoulders above the rest of us. No one dared to question his choices or doubt his selections.  Whenever I saw Charles take up a captain’s spot I got a huge smile on my face. You see, I knew that whenever Charles was captain I was safe. No, he wouldn’t pick me in the first couple rounds (the guy was after all a jock and he wanted to win for goodness sakes!) but I knew I that wouldn’t be standing there as the last pick of the day either. Why did he do it? Why did he risk the game at least somewhat? The only answer I could come up with is that he was just that kind of guy, with a heart as big as his muscles.

As I got older I outgrew the field games, I never outgrew the memory of Charles and his kindness in calling and choosing. And I think that is probably the best we can also say about why God calls and choses us. Simply because He’s that kind of God, who has a big heart, an infinite Sacred Heart. He sees us standing there like those kids in the field, but this time in the great lineup of humanity, and He looks us over…

He sees our whole lives from beginning to end and everything in between; He sees the ups and the downs, the pluses and the minuses.  He sees the emptiness, the hole in our hearts that everyone has that can only be filled by His love, even though we all try to fill it with so many other things…And in all this I think He sees that most of all, we just need to know that we are loved so much by Him…and that each of us just needs to know that we are personally called and chosen by Him.

This calling and choosing by God transforms us spiritually, from the inside out, and by God’s free choice it makes us His very adopted sons and daughters, potential heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, and anointed temples of the Holy Spirit - living-proof of the love of God among those with whom we live, work and socialize. 

This is what it means to be called and chosen.

This is what it means to be a Christian.