Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 15, 2023. Is. 49:3-6, 1 Cor 1:1-3, Gospel of John 1:29-34. Theme: The Call Within a Call
Today’s liturgy reminds us that each one of us has been created by God, who has intentionally put us on planet Earth for a purpose, for a reason, with a mission. What this means is that while we all share in as a general “vocation” (from the Latin vocare, which means to call) we each also have a very specific and individual mission that is tailor-made for us. It’s a “call-within-a-call”, so to speak, and it can be discovered through the experiences of our everyday lives.
In the first reading Isaiah speaks about Someone whom he calls the Servant of God who has a basic call or vocation of bringing God’s presence and power to the Jewish people as their Messiah. However, this Servant becomes aware that his mission must broaden and expand. He was sent not just to the Hebrews but to bring God’s love and light to all the nations, to all people of every culture, religion and place. The Church has always understood this prophecy as applying to the Lord Jesus and so we see that even Christ himself had a call-within-a-call: first as Messiah of Israel but then also as the Savior of All Nations.
The second reading mentions a man named Sosthenes, who had an amazing call-within-a-call story. We learn from the New Testament that Sosthenes was the leader of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth. This was his basic vocation. When St. Paul came to Corinth and began preaching about Jesus as the Messiah, Sosthenes had him arrested for causing a public disturbance. However, the Jews of the city didn’t think Sosthenes had stood up strongly enough for Judaism and so they literally beat him to a pulp. But this suffering providentially brought Sosthenes to find his specific mission and purpose on Earth. He began to carefully listen to St Paul’s teaching and professed faith in Jesus. This man who started out as a religious leader of Judaism became one of Paul’s traveling missionary companions and a leader in Christianity.
Finally we come to the Gospel and St. John the Baptist. He is a great example of how God intentionally creates us for a definite time in history and a specific place in the world. St. John began his ministry knowing that his basic call was to preach repentance of sin to Israel, but once Jesus appeared on the scene he found his real mission, his call-within-a-call. He was created and sent to identify the Messiah and then lead the people to Him. So you see, St. John the Baptist was born in that time of history and in that small part of the world for a precise reason. And that reason was tied to his vocation, his purpose, his mission on planet Earth.
And the very same is true for each one of us. Our vocation with its specific mission is also tied into when and where we were born, what family we are born into, and even whatever sufferings or privileges or struggles we have experienced. Even if the circumstances of our birth were not the best, every one of us was brought into existence for a reason. The basic vocation we live in the world is obvious to us and everyone around us because it consists of what we do every day at home and at work. But hidden within our lives is our personalized specific mission, our call-within-a-call. It comes from God alone. We cannot choose it, we can only embrace or reject it. And like Sosthenes, it is often made known to us after we have passed through some sort of suffering or struggled with some difficulty or are wrestling with some issue in our lives. Perhaps it’s because tough times call us to really focus on what matters in life and drop any pretenses we have built up around ourselves.
Every single one of us without exception has these two vocations on planet Earth, the basic and the specific. When things are not going as we would hope or expect, that may well be the beginning of the call-within-a-call making its appearance. Through prayer and meditation, as well as by seeking spiritual counsel, we can discover it, but we may never know its full impact and purpose in this life. God will make that known to us in the next. But as for right now, let’s just trust that God has only our ultimate good in mind and that our life has a purpose and a mission known only fully to Him.
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