Accepting Our Acceptance
"It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations" (Deuteronomy 7:7).
God has chosen us. That is simple and clear. But for us to accept that we are chosen or beloved is actually quite difficult, just as it was for Israel. It demands major freedom from self. (Only the "nobodies" seem to be ready for chosenness. Meanwhile God has to lead most of us on long 40-year journeys before we get to that place.)
God chooses each of us-not to "raise us up a notch," but to lead us through necessary and transformative journeys so we can allow ourselves to be beloved, and to relish a mutual relationship. At Pentecost the Spirit is poured out on "all humankind" regardless of status.
The election of the Jews, God's "chosen people," eventually becomes a message for the whole world, and not something to keep them superior, satisfied or apart. It will take the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Jonah, Jesus himself, the rest of the Book of Acts and the fierce ministry of Paul to resolve God's universality.
Because the implications of "one God who created all things" gradually became clear, they soon called this new religion "catholic." Our attempts to limit this election have often made us more ethnic than catholic. Not only does God end up looking very small and scarce, but we do too.
We are ready for the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit only after 50 days of enjoying the wisdom of the risen Christ. It takes a while to move from Jesus as mine to Jesus as everybody's.
Originally only Paul was strong enough to get the point, and his ministry to the gentiles (which is most of us!) was a scandal to James and Peter. He had to argue with Peter about this, and God had to give Peter a vision to prove it to him.
Choosing, Changing
When God makes a choice, it is definitive and irrevocable. The biblical God does not love us if we change, but so that we can change. God has not stopped choosing Israel any more than God stops choosing us because we do not respond (see Romans 11). As our Catholic tradition and recent popes have affirmed, the Jews are still the chosen people.
God's love, it seems, is never determined by the worthiness of the one loved, which is almost impossible for us to comprehend-because that is the only way we know how to love. The biblical God seems to be both extremely patient and extremely humble. This is good news, for where would any of us be if God's choice depended upon our response?
Since God's choice is not determined by the worthiness or even readiness of the chosen, the Bible speaks of God's love as being steadfast, faithful, forever and like a rock! We have never kept our side of the contract, and yet God always rises to the occasion and holds up God's side. You could say that is the very definition of what it means to be God and what it means to be a human being in the Bible: Humanity always fails, God always saves.
Resting, Rejoicing
As humans, we cannot recognise, much less affirm, another person's inherent, God-given goodness until we have rested in that lovely place ourselves. God is inviting us first of all to rest and rejoice in what it means to be God's beloved son or daughter. When we have learned to live and abide in that chosenness, only then can we communicate that same beloved status to anybody else or any situation at any level of depth, joy or freedom.
This is the only wedding feast there is. If we have been there, we can proclaim a true and new alternative to the drudgery and darkness of this world. This is healthy and happy religion, and it is offered to us.
As we say at Mass, "How happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb."
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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