Wednesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/102407.shtml

How can this be? This is Mary’s response, albeit a response of great faith and readiness, to her being pulled into a mystery that was beyond her comprehension. How can this be? This question is an important sign of our vocation, of being asked to do something by God that we can never be qualified to do. In the same way that a lowly handmaid was called to be the Mother of God, so each one of us should expect to one day be chosen to move out of our lowliness to a place where we are entrusted with much more than we could ever deserve or imagine.

Finding our vocation in life, of course, is much more than just matching our gifts and our desires with the appropriate job description within the Church. It is more than figuring out our preferred way for building God’s kingdom. More important than this matchmaking process is a willingness on our part to be pulled deeply into a mission that will constantly both astound and confound us. Rather than planning for a successful life working within the Lord’s vineyard, we are let God call us to something that goes far beyond any plan we could devise, but instead charges us with doing something that we would never choose for ourselves.

Allowing God to entrust us with all his property, with a greater portion of his kingdom than we want or could ever be qualified for, forces us to be the slaves of grace that Paul envisions us to be in the reading from Romans. We either choose or are chosen; there is no middle ground, and in allowing ourselves to be chosen by Christ, we will fill up what is lacking in his suffering, and be led precisely where we do not want to go. In all this, Christ does us the tremendous favor of not allowing us to measure the worth of our lives by our own expectations. No, the Lord who puts us in charge of his property, will forever work to save us from the pride of self-reliance. We should always be echoing the question of Mary – how can this be?

Many people fear their true vocation because of the truth of today’s Gospel. Once you start, you cannot stop, and in this, of course, lies salvation, a chance to forget ourselves within a mission so big that we will never give ourselves a pat on the back, but only receive the consolations of the one who has chosen us and guides us on our way! Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more!