RBWords

     Forty-three years ago, at the time of my ordination to the priesthood, I offered a prayer card on the occasion to friends which had the words above from Isaiah printed on it.  The "call" he received in his vision was considerably more dramatic than the one I experienced, but I was [and still am] inspired by his experience!  I also find inspiration in the scenes of the calls of Moses and Jeremiah in the Old Testament and the experiences of Mary and Paul in the New Testament.  These events have been the subject of volumes of scriptural commentary!  I simply want to call attention to a couple of elements that resonate with my own experience of a "call."

 

     While my experience was not dramatic, I do believe it was an immediate experience in faith of the presence of God in an insistent way.  I didn't  "dream it up."  This insistent presence may well have built on my existing faith, but it was definitely a new thing.  I had other plans for my life at the time.  The resistance offered by Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary and Paul and others is no surprise to me.  In Isaiah's case, the dramatic "cleansing by a fiery coal to the lips" is what left him open to God's insistent call.  "Here I am.....send me!"

 

     The "call" is implanted in all of us by our baptism!  We have been conditioned by an attitude that only an "ordained" person is considered worthy for ministry!  It is this resistance to our baptismal vocation that we must overcome with God's insistent presence [grace].  The "priesthood of the baptized" is the responsibility of the whole Body of Christ.  Can each of us think about why we might resist that call?    AMEN