Called Through Grace October 10, 2006

“Called me through his grace.” Galatians 1:15

“I am fearfully, wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14

“There is need of only one thing.” Luke 10:42

Piety

God, despite everything you provide, there is need for only one thing – that we pay attention to the mission commanded to us by your Son. Take from us, Father, every whisper that interrupts our hearing. Give to us the sweet sounds of your voice calling in the wilderness. Set us free from all that pre-occupies us from your work. Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. Amen.

Study

We can develop a distant intimacy with the people in the Hebrew Bible and the Good News who appear over and over in our lives through Sacred Scripture. Paul and Martha and Mary are part of our sacred reading again today. They are distant in time, yet intimate in our experience. They help reveal to us the Jesus we know today and the mission that Jesus wants us to choose.

God has always had that intimacy with us.

Distant intimacy is also born out through being made wonderfully and fearfully. God made us wonderful. God is wonderful. He gave us the ability to choose. We can be like Timothy McVeigh, the once obedient soldier, or like Charles Carl Roberts, the once quiet milkman. God made us fearful that we would not destroy the trust and love in which he places and holds us. God also is fearful because that freedom He gave us also includes freedom to turn away from him.

Saul/Paul had made such a turn. He knew he was persecuting the early Church. God had other plans for Saul of Tarsus and God needed to find a way to make sure Paul knew of those plans. A little light. I little push off his high horse. A little actual blindness. That would get my attention.

Paul’s autobiographical account today reveals much about his formation/study. After God revealed the truth to Paul, Paul set out to learn more from those who knew Jesus best. Just like we turn to retreats, mentors, spiritual directors, pastors and respected authors, Paul turns to Peter, James and others who knew Jesus directly. Then he picks up his mission with a call to action to spread the word directly and through his epistles. If Paul were alive today, I think he would have a blog.

God had other ideas for Martha as well. Mary is the embodiment of piety. She chooses to sit quietly and listen to the word of the Lord until she truly hears His message.

Then there is Martha, who chose the path of service but service initially not formed in faith. After a gentle admonition from Jesus, we learn how she changed her ways. Instead of being just a helper, she slowed down a little. For the next time we encounter Martha at her brother’s “funeral,” she exhibits a mature pre-resurrection faith that is unknown even in the modern era. She did not need to experience the resurrection in order to know Jesus as the Messiah.

Today, the “Marthas” amongst us would be running a soup kitchen like SOME or perhaps working in the refectory of a monastery. Our “Marys” would be offering workshops in centering prayer. Or maybe she would be a graduate student at Catholic University.

Mary embodies Being. Being has no beginning. No starting line. Being just is. We have always been the children of God but we haven’t always known it like God knows us. Through piety, we learn about our being in the eyes of God through listening to him.

Paul is the epitome of Formation. Formation is a process. It does have a start and we can think we initiate it. Actually, our formation was always in God’s plan, we just have come to find out about it lately.

Martha represents Action. Sometime in the formation process, we can begin know our mission and fulfill the mission that God reveals to us in our being and our formation.

Being Christian brings all three elements together.

Action

The last time I checked in on the Doomsday Clock, it was at seven minutes to midnight.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has informed the world what time it is since 1947, when its now-famous "Doomsday Clock" first appeared of the cover of the magazine. Since then, the minute hand of the clock has moved forward and back to reflect the global level of nuclear danger and the state of international security.

http://www.thebulletin.org/doomsday_clock/current_time.htm

With the possible nuclear test in North Korea, there is a lot of saber rattle in my ears. It makes me recall the 1980s when the U.S. Bishops published their pastoral letter on “The Challenge of Peace.” This week’s events accelerate that change and underscore the words of that pastoral letter:

The evil of the proliferation of nuclear arms becomes more evident every day to all people. No one is exempt from their danger. If ridding the world of the weapons of war could be done easily, the whole human race would do it gladly tomorrow. Shall we shrink from the task because it is hard?[1]

Consider writing to your political leaders and urge restraint and negotiations at this time of stress.

[1] http://www.osjspm.org/the_challenge_of_peace_2.aspx, paragraph 335.