Bulletin column from January 17, 2021

Dear Friends at Saint Frances Cabrini Parish and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish: Praised be Jesus Christ!
As we make our way now back into Ordinary (from the Latin for “numbered”) Time, we are presented this weekend and next weekend with very similar stories from two separate Gospels that center on the call of the first disciples. These stories are told very much in the same mode and manner of famous “call stories” that we find throughout the Old Testament as well. All throughout the Scriptures, the sacred writings frequently communicate a relational dynamic of being called by God.

We should not take for granted what a significant thing this is. It means that from the very earliest days of humanity, we have had the distinct and unmistakable awareness that a being who is totally above us has reached out to us in order to form a relationship. We are aware that there is God, and that this same God takes the initiative to speak to us. He does so in ways that arise from deep within the human heart, wherein he places his voice so that we can hear him. Sometimes he does so in very physically visible manifestations, for example a burning bush with Moses. He calls in a manner that is at times directed to large groups, or in ways that are relatively ordinary. In other instances he speaks in a very unique way to certain individuals who God has determined are pivotal for his unfolding plan, for example in the case of the Blessed Mother. Our very keen sense that God truly does exist, and that God truly loves each of us in a unique and unrepeatable manner has a great deal to do with the fact that we can and do experience his call to us.

The first Apostles who are called in these Sunday’s readings are much like the famous elders of old Israel. They are being called and chosen to be leaders and special recipients of important teachings that must be shared with others for the sake of salvation. They are being summoned to be very visible representatives on earth of the invisible God, now made manifest in Jesus of Nazareth. Their calls are of a deep enough nature that they must set aside much of their current manner of living in order to answer it in the way that God requires. In all of these ways, these apostolic calls from the Gospels set the tone for us of what it means for God to call deacons, priests, and bishops in the sacramental ministry of Holy Orders even to this very day.

That said, one should not hear these stories and their radical dynamic as applying only to priests. Make no mistake that God summons all of us to himself in ways that are bold. He has done so for thousands of years. He does even to this day. He will do so through all circumstances until the end of the ages when he comes again in glory. None of us should ever take lightly our need and obligation to always listen carefully to, and to give an answer to, the call of the Lord. If we do not hear him calling out to us, over and over, to follow after him in a lifestyle that is distinctly Christian, then we are not paying attention to him. If we are not paying attention, we will never know the fullness of the Gospel joy that he has in store for us in this life or in the next. His call gives life. As we hear it, each of us in our own way, we are eager to give ourselves over to his care, and we know that we will only gain for doing so.