October 19, 2008 at Saint Mark Norman, OK
Isaiah 45: 1, 4-6 + Psalm 96 + 1 Thessalonians1: 1-5 + Matthew 22:15-21
There is a profound distinction to be made when pondering Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, and it is one that easily escapes us in our choice laden world; in a society that prizes “choice” above justice and too often above life itself.
Throughout this letter, Paul reminds his readers that they have been chosen by God, but somehow that never seems to sink in.
We like the privilege of choosing, but no matter how hard we try convincing ourselves, our presence here, our very existence is not intentional. We did not choose to be born, we do not choose life, God does, and thinking otherwise is the root of great evil.
I did not choose to wake up this morning. Nothing I did brought the dawn, and there is nothing I can do to bring another. Paul wants us to understand that the first choice is God’s, and other choices come from God’s first choice.
We might like to think that we made a choice to be Catholic, that we decided to get here for Mass today; but that’s not the way it is.
Our faith is no more intentional than our birth or our life. It is a gift from a God who has chosen us: chosen to feed us, to speak with us through His Word, chosen to be present to us in a sacramental life, listen to us, and be tolerantly patient with us while we pretend that it’s our choice. The more I am around people who come to us in the RCIA program, the more I realize who is doing the choosing. God is choosing those people for faith and this sacramental life. If God chose them, God chose me as well.
I think back sometimes to the feelings I had when as a child we would be choosing up sides for games, and how it felt to finally be chosen for one team or another and then how hard I would play to make sure they believed they had made the right choice and would chose me tomorrow. I remember what it was like when I pretended that I was choosing to be a priest only to wake up suddenly one day and realize that if the faculty and the bishop did not choose me for ordination all those years of study had taken me no where – except maybe to bring me to that realization and profound understanding that it was not I who chose the Lord, but the Lord who chose me.
You think about your lives and remember what it was like when you asked someone to be your husband or your wife. You may have thought you did the choosing, but in the end you had to wait to be chosen, and when you were, you were different. It’s the same with jobs isn’t it? You wait to be chosen for promotions or some new position, and when you get chosen, you work and perform to prove and be worthy of the choice another made in order to keep that position.
It is not much different for us when it comes to faith. We all meet people day in and day out who do not have faith or who do not share our faith. I see them often and wonder how they face and live with the trials and tragedies of life, and sometimes they do not, and then make bad choices which makes things worse.
The fact is, Paul reminds us, we have been chosen. We are by faith and by Baptism a chosen people. When we stop thinking that we’ve made the choice, we shall begin to act and live with humility and gratitude befitting a chosen and holy people. When we stop thinking that we have made the choices we shall have embraced the very heart of Christian morality, and holiness will be ours because God has chosen to make it so.
God has called us to this place. We must be here because we have heard the call and are overwhelmed by the wonder and mystery of it. We would do well to ask “why me?” but not at times of pain or disappointment, but rather at times of goodness and joy. It is the right way to stand before God, not with the pride of pretending we have chosen God; but with the humility of knowing that God has chosen us, called us, asked so little of us. Getting that right changes everything about being here, about being faithful, prayerful, present at Eucharist, just, and merciful. Paul thinks it’s time for us to get over ourselves – and get into the mystery of having been chosen and what it will mean for us and how we shall live together because of it.