Why Do We Serve the Lord August 27

Piety

THE LORD HAD A JOB FOR ME
The Lord had a job for me...
...but I have so much to do,
You'd better get somebody else...
...or wait til' I get through.

Now, I don't know how the Lord came out...
...I guess He got along,
But I felt kind of "sneaky-like"...
...because I knew I had done Him wrong.

Now, one day, I needed the Lord myself...
...and I needed Him right away,
But He never answered me a word...
...except I could hear Him say.

Deep down in My Hurt Heart...
..."you've" got so much to do,
You'd better get somebody else...
...or wait til' "I" get through.

Now, when the Lord has a job for me...
...I try not to shirk,
I quit the work I have to do...
...and do the Good Lord's Work.

My work can just shift along...
...or wait til' I get through,
Because no one can do the job...
...that the Lord Lays out for you!

From Anita Sanders and her Grandmother

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082706.shtml

Why Do We Serve the Lord?
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Why do we serve the Lord? Can we count the ways? God calls us by the example of Jesus and all the saints in our lives. He speaks to our hearts. Wherever there is love God is there. Creation is the template of his love. The wonder of the stars calls us to admire a love that goes back billions of years. He loved us in our mothers' wombs. He called us out of darkness into the brilliant light of his Son. He gathers us together to witness to great miracles of how he guides us and saves us.

Just as the Hebrew people were called to serve the Lord, we are called to serve the Lord, because he is our God.

Saint Paul turns off a lot of women because he says wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. How can that be a bad thing when husbands are asked to love their wives as their own bodies? The challenge for husbands is to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. This means Christ as the head sees the people of the Church as his own body. He gives his life for us. So a husband is challenged to love his wife as Christ loved the Church. Husband and wife become one body and mutually sanctify each other. They mutually give their lives for each other.

Our gospel today brings the lesson of oneness home. Christ challenges us to eat of his body and to drink of his blood. The meaning is clear. He wants to be eaten by us. And he gives us his life so that we might be in him even as he is in us. The challenge of oneness permeates life. We see disciples leaving him because they know he means what he is saying.

Peter and the others did not understand any better what Christ was saying. They believed he meant what he was saying and because they recognized Christ as the Holy One of God, they knew they wanted to believe what he was saying. They had no where else to go. We serve the Lord because he is our God. He loves us in every breath of our lives and he wants all of us even as he would give us all of himself. The ideal of communion would be to feed on Christ every day of our lives. We serve the Lord by being a fullness of Christ to each other.

Action

Sometimes the message from Jesus is not only hard for us to get it was hard for the disciples. Some strong believers today remain willing to lose their freedom for their faith beliefs just ilke the disciples did.

Six Catholic bishops remained jailed in China for refusing to back a state-sponsored church. This week, one other bishop was freed in a good sign that maybe the Chinese government will recognize freedom of religion.

According to a story by Reuters, “religion has flourished in China since economic reforms were launched in the late 1970s, but the nation's Communist rulers insist all faiths remain firmly in the grip of the state.” The story went on to estimate that the Vatican claims 8 million followers in China, compared with about 5 million who follow the state-backed church.

These faithful in China were not afraid to serve the Lord even if it meant that they could lose their freedom in the same way that Saints Peter, Paul and other early Christians were jailed by the Romans for their faith.

Sometimes, we hear of people in this country, like the Plowshares activists, who challenge state policies and face arrest and imprisonment in trying to forge a more peaceful and less violent society.

The Chinese bishops and the Plowshares activists show us examples of people willing to serve the Lord despite the costs.

What would you be willing to give up in order to make the Kingdom of Heaven come alive? Your freedom? Maybe you are not called to experience jail for the Lord. However, as Anita reminds us, "No one can do the job that the Lord lays out for you."