Gospel of Mark, Chapter 6:7

It’s always exciting to be chosen to do something: give a speech, play on a team, represent a group. However, our excitement can quickly fade to fear in the face of the responsibilities that accompany our being chosen. We are expected to be witty and coherent in our speaking, accomplished at playing the game, truly representative of the goals and values of the group. We have to develop or rely on innate abilities to prove worthy of being chosen. It is rare, indeed, that we are given such abilities in the very act of being chosen. Rare, but not unheard of. In today’s Scripture, Jesus sends His disciples off, two by two, to preach repentance, to free people from their inner demons.

Today’s Scripture makes it crystal clear that God does the choosing. No matter how ordinary we may think the apostles were, they were a God-chosen lot. Jesus, by His God given power, now bestows that power on His followers. Like Jesus, they are to exercise their divine choice by announcing the good news and calling others to personal conversion.

St. Paul also reminds us (Ephesians 1:3-10) that God had taken the initiative to choose us-even before the beginning of time . In that act of choosing, God also empowered us to live up to our calling to bring all things into unity with God in Christ. This is our mission as baptized Christians.

Without this mission, without our exercising our “power,” we cannot call ourselves chosen; we cannot call ourselves church. As church, God calls us and enables us to reach out, to be missionaries to the whole world. After welcoming God’s call, it is our task first to discern how we are to live out our mission and then do so in faith, knowing that, no matter what, God’s power is with us in Christ Jesus.

Take time to reflect on your mission. Recall that you are church, that you are a person called by God. Decide on specific ways to live out your mission in the world. Provide a home for someone homeless. Write that letter you’ve meant to do. Visit someone who is lonely or sick. Listen to a child. Care for an elderly neighbor. Smile at the crank in the office. Be extra patient with your child, or your parent. Take time to pray. Be active in your church, and help one another to carry their daily burden. Be a Christian. That is your calling.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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