CHOSEN

To be holy and blameless in love...

July 11, 2021: 15th Sunday in Ordinary time

Amos 7: 12-15; Ephesians 1: 3-14; Mark 6: 7-13

 

To begin with, God chose us! We did not choose God! So, deserting God, or switching allegiance, looking for greener pastures, blaming monotony, seeking thrills and demanding signs are totally unbecoming of a chosen one. Situations that are trying, opportunities that are attractive, offers that are tempting might often come our way, but the one who endures till the end takes the crown. God has chosen us in Christ. As Amos in today's first reading makes it clear: it is not in our greatness or in our credibility-status or in our self-worth, that the Lord has chosen us, but in Christ did God choose us.

The reason I am chosen is because, Christ died for me! Let us clarify it further… I am chosen, because Christ died for me…it is not that Christ died for me because I am chosen, but because Christ died for me, I have become chosen. Therefore, being chosen is not out of merit, we can never merit the unconditional love of God. Being chosen is because of the love that God has for us. Anyone can become, ‘chosen’, because Christ died for all…and all that one needs to do is become aware of the fact that Christ died for him or her, that God loves him or her, that he or she is a chosen son or daughter in the Spirit of the Lord.

Secondly, when did God choose me? In baptism we were buried with Christ says St. Paul (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12). Were we chosen at our baptism? But Isaiah says before I was born, while I was still in my mother’s womb, the Lord called me (Is 49:1). So, was I chosen when I was in my mother's womb? Jeremiah explains, before the Lord even formed me in the womb of my mother, the Lord knew me, called me and has a plan for me (Jer 1:5), to set me up as the so-called light of the world and prophet to the nations. So, was I chosen, before I were being even formed in my mother’s womb? St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, beats it all: God chose us before the foundations of the world. Right from the earliest moment that one can think of, or one cannot even think of, I belong to God!

            The greatest of gifts that chosenness gives me is the sense of purpose! Purpose, reason, motive, mission, meaning…are various words to mean one fundamental truth: God’s will for us, God-willed destiny for us, God’s plan for us in eternity. For I know the plans I have for you, the Lord promises us (Jer 29:11). Whether I understand it or not, or accept it or not… in God’s own eternity I have been chosen and I have a purpose for my life!

Thirdly, if the Lord has chosen me, for what has God chosen me: to be holy and blameless in love. To be in love, and through that being holy and blameless - that is the plan that God has for me, that is the invitation that the Lord offers me. The most important call that a Christian has, or to say the defining call that a Christian has, is to love – for by that they shall know you, that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for each other. It is love that can give me the identity of being chosen! It is not any great achievement, or big diplomas and degrees, or posts and positions, or buildings or projects, or massive gathering or expensive celebrations, that will determine the ardent Christian that I am…but it is love and love only, that will define my status as chosen to be a follower of Christ.

Love and do what you like, said Augustine. When we live our lives in love, we are sure to be holy and blameless. There is no other criterion as fool proof as love, to be considered chosen or not. By this they will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for one another (Jn 13:35). It is only love that can make me whole. It is only love that can lead me to a life that is absolutely blameless. It is only love that can lead me to be holy! 

The Call of the Lord is to holiness and God has chosen me; when I walk thought it, I fulfill my life’s purpose. It would be sad to think otherwise! It is never God who is going to miss it when I don’t realise my chosenness and live to bring it to fulfilment; it is always I who lose my meaning, peace of mind and fulfilment in life. Gratefully today let us re-embark on this journey of chosenness.