[Propertalk] 2 Epiphany b - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

Part 2

 Sometimes we can crush both others and ourselves by our blinkered
view of God and the world, and by a lack of willingness to see that
God calls everyone to engage in an incredibly diverse number of
ministries, all in the name of love. And, if, indeed, we do change our
vocations several times throughout the course of our lives, that
doesn’t deny in the least that the first, second or third vocational
engagement was not valid OR a response to what God may have felt was
needed at any particular time. 

	Sometimes the call to ministry comes suddenly, out of the blue. It
may be something large, it may be something small. It may take great
effort, it may be comparatively easy. But, always, in involves
one-hundred-per-cent dedication and commitment. And there are times
when we may be on the receiving end of ministry – and THAT is a
vocation also, to allow someone else to engage through God’s love.

	What would you do today, this morning, if you were homeless and
didn’t have anywhere to sleep out of the rain and wind?

	What would you do, if, in addition to that, you have some degree of
health problems?

	 What would you do if, on top of that, you needed some of those
things of which we spoke as we renewed our baptismal promises – like
affording to everyone a sense of dignity and compassion?

	 “Follow me,” said Jesus, first to Philip, then to Nathanael,
Philip’s friend, who was sitting under a fig tree.

	 “I’ll show you where you can get a shower; or a hot meal; or
some clothing to keep you warm.” Is that what Jesus said? 

	 Well, no, just the invitation to follow Him, with, perhaps, the
remotest implication that there might be some sort of a job, some sort
of assistance, some sort of security on the horizon. But the strange
thing is that there were no guarantees offered, simply an invitation
to try something different, to take chances and, quite frankly, if
someone told me I’d “see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”, I might be inclined
to back off a bit.

	 But think where you and I may have heard before about a situation
like that. Jacob, does he come to mind? Jacob, dreaming, resting his
head on a large rock with nothing but his cloak over him at night, yet
able to take in the dream he had about angels going up and down, on a
ladder, something, moving between where God is and where human beings
are. Jacob, detecting some sort of a bridge which connected everything
together and allowed God’s word and hopes to become apparent.

	 Was this what Jesus – or the Gospel writer – was wanting us to
remember? Isn’t this what Jesus personifies to us, that He is the
bridge which will provide the means for us to recognise that we’re
in God’s company and can find peace, and hope, and help in that.

	 So, then, what would you and I do, with that knowledge about Jesus
and God’s love; what would you and I do for the person who may be
afraid to talk to us, or to ask for what really is troubling them?
What will you and I do with the knowledge of God’s presence and the
invitation to walk with God on earth? What will we do that’s
practical, that’s helpful, that’s encouraging and healing to all
God’s people?

	 Samuel, Philip, Nathaniel – none of them were vetted. They were
simply called, and, as a writer put it, they and millions of others
found a depth of love within themselves to which they didn’t know
they had access. They discovered a profound trust in what God might
want to have accomplished through them. 1

	 We all have the capacity to love, if we’ll accept it and go with
it. Or we can reject. The choice is always up to us how we’ll hear,
what we’ll say, how we’ll respond. Not a single one of us will be
left out of the invitation to ministry in all its extravagant forms.

	 Of course, we still have to listen, to try to determine who’s
talking to us, and why. But here’s one thing to consider while we
listen, all the time, wherever we are.

	 “Jesus himself was from a (run-down, unrespectable, dirty) place.
Nazareth was a minuscule town of 200 to 400 people, where people lived
in small stone houses, and, say archaeologists, garbage … was dumped
in the alleyways. ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ says
Nathanael when he hears where the Messiah is from.

	 “God, in other words, came from a (terrible) place. And he
pointedly asked us to welcome him whenever he appeared as a
‘stranger,’ or as one of our ‘least’ brothers and sisters.
That's why we have all these people come. Because Jesus came.” 2 And
because Jesus still calls us to ministry, in a million different ways,
and to million upon millions of people.

	 As an acquaintance wrote, ““There’s so much you can be in your
future, once you figure out it has nothing to do with your past.” 3

	NOTES:

	[1] _“The Five Invitations: Discovering what death can teach us
about living fully”_ by Frank Ostaseski. Flatiron Books, New York,
N.Y. © 2017. 

2  _“WHY WE SHOULD WELCOME PEOPLE FROM COUNTRIES TRUMP JUST
INSULTED_” BY FR. JAMES MARTIN IN _“AMERICA”_
WWW.AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG/POLITICS-SOCIETY/2018/01/... AND ON FACEBOOK:
FR. JAMES MARTIN, SJ - FACEBOOK.COM [1]
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/FRJAMESMARTIN/POSTS/ [2]..

	3  “_Past Due – Story of the Day_” in _“StoryPeople_”, 9th
January, 2018 by Brian Andreas.


Links:
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[1]
http://mail2.spectrum.net/HTTPS://R.SEARCH.YAHOO.COM/_YLT=AWRGEY_UVLPAB0KADCYPXQT.;_YLU=X3ODMTBYM3V1YTVUBGNVBG8DZ3EXBHBVCWMZBHZ0AWQDBHNLYWNZCG--/RV=2/RE=1515898708/RO=10/RU=HTTPS%3A%2F%2FWWW.FACEBOOK.COM%2FFRJAMESMARTIN%2FPOSTS%2F10155023717926496/RK=2/RS=UCRUXP8CA4XJVS_WYWUGLENWWHY-
[2]
http://mail2.spectrum.net/HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/FRJAMESMARTIN/POSTS/

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