CALLED

CALLED – 4^th Sunday of Easter, Year A

            We hear many calls in our lives. From the time we are infants, we have heard the call of our parents, teachers, priests, brothers, sisters, friends, and many others. We have heard the calls of sin in temptation, and the calls of the Lord in grace in His Word and the teachings of faith. We receive calls from our work, nation, the Church, and the needs of the poor and needy, and the not so needy. We have heard the calls of advertisers for lots of products. We have so many calls from so many different directions that we take them for granted as part of life.

            We know that not all calls are equally deserving. Many, such as the calls to sin, need not be responded to at all. Not even all calls, which are good in themselves, are to be responded to. Whenever we are responding to one call, it necessarily means we will not be able to respond to another call at the same time. “Call waiting” is to be expected in life. We need to be discerning in the calls we listen to and respond to. In answering the wrong or lesser calls, we can miss the ones we truly need to respond to.

            Our most important calls come to us from God. When the Lord calls, some seem to say “check back with me later, Lord. I have to respond to this other call now”. Or, even worse, it’s possible to say “Lord, don’t call me, I’ll call you.” Or to say, “Lord, I believe you have made a mistake. You’ve called the wrong person. I’m too young…old. You might want to check your records again”. Or when some inspiring thought comes from the Lord to say: “Heaven can wait”. Or when called to help some poor person, where the Lord says He is present and speaks to us, to say, “They are not deserving. They shouldn’t have gotten themselves in the mess they are in”. Or even worse to “hang up” on the Lord’s calls. Many leave the Lord’s call “on hold” for months and years.

            God’s Word is a constant call to us to make a response. When Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost about Jesus whom “God has made both Lord and Messiah” people were deeply moved. They asked, “What are we to do, my brothers”? Peter told them to reform and be baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. To answer the calls of God is to accept a redeeming kind of suffering into one’s life. That is because God’s calls are calling us to do good. There is a certain amount of truth in the saying, “no good deed goes unpunished”. “If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His footsteps.”

            Answering any call is going to make demands. Answering the calls of God, while they may involve suffering, at the same time they lead to a deeper life. Answering the calls of sin leads to suffering and some spiritual unhappiness, less life, and death. We are called to follow Jesus Christ, the Shepherd Lord “who calls His own by name and leads them out”. He is followed by those who “recognize His voice”. Within our baptismal call to follow Jesus, the Lord can make some other calls. These calls are to help the person live their baptismal life out more completely and to be part of the mission of Christ. When someone answers those specific calls, they receive a whole new set of a calls.

            The calls to the priesthood and religious life, with the baptismal call, can present the one called with a whole new set of calls, that could not be given without a response to the basic call. The same is true of the call to marriage and parenthood. World Day of Prayer for Vocations stresses the calls to the ordained priesthood and religious life. Those who answer the basic call receive a never ending stream of calls on their life. “I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Fr. Kirk found this to be true in answering the call to be a priest, preparing for it, and living it since his ordination on May 9, 1970. What a loss he would have suffered had he missed the call of the Lord to be His priest.

            The calls we respond to, or don’t respond to, define our life here and in eternity. Among the calls we receive are the calls that remind us we are called by the Lord!

Reflection from Divine Mercy #1557

“O Jesus, keep me in holy fear, so that I may not waste graces. Help me to be faithful to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.”