Word to the Wise
Saturday, July 10, 2010 - Saturday in the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[Isaiah 6:1-8 and Matthew 10:24-33]Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said; "send me!" [Isaiah] So, do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. [Matthew]
One fine day in my last undergraduate year at Tulane University (1960-64) I walked to the mailbox and deposited the envelope with my application for admission to the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). I did so in response to what seemed to be a persistent "voice" that said, "You should do this." Seven years later, reflecting on that "urge" I came across the passage from Isaiah quoted above and realized that it captured much of my feeling about being ordained to the priesthood, and so I had it put on one of the "souvenir cards" that are often sent in the invitation to family and friends. Years later, while on retreat in the Arizona desert, I watched a lot of sparrows feeding and squabbling, etc. right about the time I was reflecting on the passage from Matthew. This enabled me to realize how God's providence manages to sustain me in my commitment to the Dominican Order and to ordained ministry. Sparrows remain special birds to me. (There is one more special passage connected with all of this: Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3, but I'll leave it for another time.) I mention all of this from my own experience simply because I feel that many of us do not associate the important decisions about our fundamental call in life with our faith. When we fail to do this, our choice simply becomes a type of consumer choice among many alternatives. Furthermore, maintaining the commitment in fidelity to that calling becomes only a kind of "brand name loyalty" because we do not see our fidelity as being sustained by God's providence. Today I will preside at the marriage of a former student parishioner. I pray that she and her husband will see their commitment as something from God and that God will sustain them in that commitment. For myself, in my forty-fifth year of religious profession and fortieth of ordained priesthood, I marvel that God's providence continues to sustain me despite the doubts I had when I mailed that envelope so many years ago. AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
165 ms
4
