I
remember reading somewhere that when Mother Teresa began her mission
in Calcutta, it was only after the 12th attempt to get
permission that her previous Order allowed her to go. She had
great perseverance, you could say, but it was also that the call of
God was strong and she was listening. I also remember hearing that a
bishop who knew her before she began this work, said ‘I wouldn’t
have put her in charge of the sacristy.’ He didn’t think she was
capable of much. And yet look at what God did through her, not
because she was a woman of remarkable ability, rather because she had
a great openness to God and that is all God needs. She called herself
‘God’s pencil.’
It
is easy for us to get the idea that we have to be particularly
talented or special people if God is to be able to use us, but that
is not true. In fact, if you read about the lives of many of the holy
men and women throughout the ages, most of them are not people that
you would probably pick to do anything extraordinary. God does not
need great ability, just our openness and willingness. That also
means that our age, or our physical ability is no hindrance to God.
Moses was called to lead the people of Israel to freedom when he was
in his eighties and he had murdered a man when he himself was young
and then had to flee the country so that he wouldn’t be killed
himself.
A
modern day Christian evangelist called Merlin Carothers, who has
written many books, felt that God was calling him to go back into
ministry again when he was in his seventies, and so he did.
It
would be a mistake to feel that there is not much more that we can do
because we are getting too old or because our health doesn’t seem
to allow us to do much anymore, or even because we are not
particularly talented. It is not so much about what God may call us
to do, it is above all to be in relationship with the Lord. God only
needs us to be open to his call. If we are open then God will do
everything else.
The
readings today are about responding to God’s call to us. In the
Gospel Jesus calls the first four apostles, Peter, Andrew, James and
John. In this case it says that they followed him willingly, giving
up their work. Jesus must have made quite an impression on them.
Perhaps it was the personal contact with Jesus which gave them the
courage to follow him. Either way they did.
If
we are also called to be disciples, what does that mean in practice?
It means that we develop a personal relationship with Jesus. A
personal relationship means a real, living, relationship, just like
we would have with any other human being. So it means we begin to
learn more about Jesus, we speak to him every day, we spend time in
prayer listening to him and speaking to him, every day. We find out
what he is teaching us through the Scriptures and we try to live
that. The surprising thing is what happens when we begin to do this.
First of all we may not even be aware that a personal relationship is
really possible, but it is. Many people here have that kind of
relationship with the Lord, but many more probably don’t and this
is what we are being invited to. Why is that so important, because
that is when our faith really begins to come alive. Then our coming
to mass regularly begins to make more sense. It is no longer just
something we have to do because we are Catholic. We come to the mass
because we want to worship God and encounter the Lord Jesus in a
particular way. The more people respond to Jesus’ call to follow
him, to have a real living relationship with him, the more alive the
whole parish becomes. Then we realise it is all about serving him and
trying to live out his call to us. That is when our faith begins to
transform us and this is what we are called to.
Most
of us are not called to follow God in the way that Moses, or Mother
Teresa, or the Apostles were. But God calls all of us to enter
into a relationship with him. It may not be a dramatic call, but it
is very real. The most important thing is that we respond and no one
can force us to do this. Even if we have been brought up as Catholics
and taught about God and the mass, at some stage we still have to
make that choice to believe in God and to accept this relationship
with him. The more we live that relationship the more God begins to
shine through us and that is how we tell other people about God, not
by the words we speak, but primarily by the way we live our
relationship with God.
It
is only in God that we will find true and lasting happiness and
that’s why He calls us to follow the path that leads to him. It is
not an easy path, but it is the most worthwhile path and all of us
without exception can respond to that invitation, but we have to
consciously make a decision to do that.
‘The
time has come,’ Jesus said, ‘and the kingdom of heaven is close
at hand.’
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