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WHO DAT ... ME?

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The old catechism stated that we are created to know, love, and serve God in this world, and to be happy with Him in the next. Rewritten today, this statement would be expanded to acknowledge that love and service of God necessarily involve love and service of neighbor. The two cannot be separated.

In one way or another, then, we are all called. The form of our service will vary. Some will serve the Kingdom through full-time ministry; others through part-time activities. No matter what our "day job," however, all of us are called to place ourselves at the service of the Kingdom through Christ-like relationships with family, neighbor, and stranger.

Many of us have difficulty seeing ourselves as servants of the Kingdom. This, in fact, has always been the case. In the first reading, Isaiah responds to his call by reminding God that he is a man "with unclean lips." In the gospel, Peter responds to Jesus by asking him to leave his presence because he is "sinful man."

These two men resist God's call – at least initially – because they are under the mistaken impression that a call depends upon worthiness, readiness, or personal virtue. Only holy people are called, they think. Only saints can serve God.

This is simply not true. Peter and Isaiah and millions of others fail to grasp that God's decision to choose them has nothing to do with personal preparedness. God calls them because he calls everyone.

The challenge is to hear one's call and to respond to it with generosity. Otherwise we can live and die without ever having achieved the entire purpose for which we were created in the first place.

Stephen J. Sauer, S.J.
Pastor