God has a place for us
5th Sunday of Easter. Lectionary 52
God has a place for us.
We all share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. A priest is someone who offers worship and sacrifice to God. God wants to make each one of us a priest who can offer praise and sacrifice.
In today’s first reading, we heard about the first deacons. The community chose those men to serve, and the apostles laid hands on them and ordained them for service. As a deacon, this reading is special to me. The deacon has a place of service at the altar, but is primarily ordained for service to the people. I love to serve at mass, but my greatest joy is to be available to my family as a husband and father, and to serve the people of God outside the liturgy. That is my place.
Being in the place God wants us gives great joy. What is your place? What is God calling you to do? Are you doing that?
There are many good and important things to do. Some of them are things that any and all of us can do. Some are specific to us in our place. This Mother’s day, we honor those who offer God worship and sacrifice as they serve and care for their natural and spiritual children. They have a special place of service, of sacrifice, and of joy.
When my children were young, my wife was ill one day, so I stayed home from work. It was exhausting. By the end of the day, I had a profound appreciation for her place as mother. I wasn’t even doing the really hard things – I was just trying to keep them clean and uninjured. I remember joking with her that evening that she could never die, because I could never do her job, and couldn’t afford to hire an army to do everything she does.
God has a place for us. We can’t do everything, but each of us have a place. My place is not Father’s place, nor is it Julio’s place. In Acts, it was good and right for someone to make sure that the widows received their portion, but the most important thing for the apostles was prayer and the ministry of the word. They ordained deacons to take care of one part of ministry to the church, so they could focus on the things that only they could do.
We can’t do everything, but we can do something.
What is the thing God is calling you to do? Do that thing.
We all have a place, but we also all face distractions. It doesn’t matter if we are distracted by doing all sorts of good things, or if we are distracted by doing things that are not good. The result is the same – we rob ourselves of the opportunity for the joy that leads us to praise God.
Are you very, very busy? If so, why? There are many good things we can do, but none of us can do everything all by ourselves. God is not calling us to do everything. In a healthy church, just like in a healthy family, everyone does their part. If momma does everything, the family is not healthy. If two or three people do everything at the church, the church is not healthy. We are each called to serve in our place, and to support others as they serve in their place.
Another distraction we sometimes encounter is the temptation to be critical of others. Sometimes we spend too much energy looking at other people, and criticizing their place of service, instead of focusing on our own place. Of course, there are times where our place is to help someone else, but there is a difference between being helping others and staying busy, and being a busybody.
Sometimes, we fail to be content in our place. Sometimes we think we are either too good for our place, or not good enough for our place. The simple truth is that our place, no matter what it is, is good and valuable, because God gave it to us. It isn’t the work, the position, or the title that makes us small or great. It is the love with which we serve that makes us great. Most of us are called to be great by doing small things with great love.
Thinking again of mothers – there are moments of greatness in a Mother’s service. Most of the time, however, a mother’s day is full of menial, frustrating, repetitive, and dirty work. It is the love with which a mother lives her place of sacrifice and praise that makes her great, and for which we honor her. It is the same for each of us.
And, likewise, although it is a cliche expression, it is true – God does not call the equipped, God equips the called. God will give us the love and the grace we need to serve in the place where God calls us to be God’s priests, offering sacrifice and praise in ordinary and extraordinary ways.
We are a chosen race, and a royal priesthood. God desires that each of us have the opportunity to joyfully offer sacrifice and praise in our words and in our actions here on earth. To the degree that we join our sacrifice to that of the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we will also join in his glory when we come to our place in heaven.
May God give us the grace to see our place and understand our calling, and the love to live that calling joyfully.
