He Chooses Us in Him

July 15, 2012

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, or have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.   The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel."  Amos 7:14-15

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.   Ephesians 1:3-6

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick -- no food, no sack, no money in their belts.   They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.   He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.   Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them."  Mark 6:8-11

Piety

Piety is the response to Christ’s call to discipleship.  It can be said that we did not choose Christ, but he chooses us.  The radical nature of the call is that it remains an interior attraction that dogs us through life until we respond to it.  We are free to accept the call.  Those who do not accept the call, carry a memory that is almost akin to being sad that the call was not responded to with their whole heart.  The young man of the Gospel goes away sad because he has many possessions.  Christ calls us to a simplicity that gradually purges us of all the unnecessary in our lives.  The description of the Call Paul puts words on in the first chapter of Ephesians.  “The Father has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” Our piety is in our adoption by the Father through Jesus Christ.  It is in Christ that we have our redemption and our forgiveness.  The riches of our graces are found in the grace he lavishes upon us. 

Study

Our study updates our relationship to Christ.  It allows us to grow up with him.  We put on his mind and emulate his heart.  In Christ we discover what the fullness of life is all about.  Christ is the perfection of God in human form.  We see in Christ the love of the Father.  We examine how Christ loves us.  He gives us his life.  He tells us that he loves us as the Father has loved him.  We study how Christ loves us in the giving of his life for us.  He asks us to love one another as he has loved us.  He shares with us all that the Father has taught him.  He tells us that when we see him, we see the Father.  He asks us to be able to say that when someone see us they him. 

Action

We can have as much Christ as we give away.  The paradox of our mission in discipleship is to be his presence to the world we live in.  We are to spread the kingdom of God by calling others to share our journey with Christ back to the Father.  Christ sends us out even as he sent out his Apostles.  We too are to preach repentance.  We are to do well and to avoid evil.  We pray for those who persecute us.  We return good for evil.  We live in the world without belonging to the world.  We are born again as children of God by our Baptism and are given the life of God within us.  Christ became man so that we can become Gods.  How we live our destiny is seen in all the ways Christ becomes an important part of who we are.  We become transparencies of Christ by sharing the love he had for us with each other.  Christ in his humanness is the best part of us in heaven.  We in our earthiness are his hands and feet as we take his message to our world and help others to find the real meaning of life in Christ.  Without Christ we are nothing.  With Christ we can overcome our world with God’s love.