“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.” Jn 15:9
Dear reader, I have good news: YOU are loved by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. YOU are loved by the Trinity with a love that poured forth in Creation, that led the Son to become man, suffer and die to redeem you, that impels the Holy Spirit to remain present in and through the Church that the Son established. YOU are loved.
Today, you’re invited deeper into that Trinitarian love. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit pours himself out for love of you and yearns for a relationship with you, that you might receive and live in that love.
In his farewell discourse, his final words to his apostles before his Paschal Mystery, Jesus tells the apostles – and us – to draw near to him: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love” (Jn 15:9). As close as the branches are to the vine, we are called to remain close to Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit (Jn 15:1-8).
Through abiding in relationship with the Trinity, we are offered lasting joy, Jesus tells us (Jn 15:11). And having received the love and the joy of the Trinity, we can abide in relationship with one another, even going so far as to lay our lives down for our friends (Jn 15:12-13).
Jesus’ call to abide in his love, an inward movement toward the Trinity, is complemented by his outward call to witness to that love, to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). Having encountered the Lord and having grown in love for him, we are called to share this profound love with others.
Dear reader, YOU are called to share this love with others! You matter to this mission. You are part of the cavalry that is to go forth and spread the Good News! In some sense, the Church can’t do it without you. In your uniqueness, with your gifts, skills, charisms and experiences, you are “plan A.” In his infinite wisdom, God can bring about a “plan B” to accomplish his mission, but you are his first choice!
“Each person brings some unique dimension to helping the world hear and respond to the Good News.” St. John Neumann
Why me?
Aren’t there more qualified people? That’s a job for priests, religious and consecrated.
The Church tells us quite the opposite in her Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium: “The laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus, every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself ‘according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal’” (33).
The mission and charism of our priests, religious and consecrated are vital to the mission of Jesus and his Church. But your mission as part of the laity is just as necessary.
Why you? Why me? Because, in the words of the great saint-bishop John Neumann, “Each person brings some unique dimension to helping the world hear and respond to the Good News.”
St. John Neumann, the fourth bishop of Philadelphia, was known for his pastoral care of his people, even learning Gaelic – his seventh language – to hear the confessions of the Irish immigrants arriving in the city. He organized a diocesan Catholic school system, opened dozens of parishes and schools, and lived a simple, holy life. He even died in service to his people, collapsing on the cold street after sorting out a misunderstanding and ensuring one of his priests would receive a chalice.
Of course, St. John Neumann was called in a particular way to preach the Good News and to abide in relationship with the Trinity himself. He also knew the eternal significance of inviting others into that relationship so they might know and love the Lord and share that love. “Each person [that is, you and me, dear reader] brings some unique dimension to helping the world hear and respond to the Good News.”
You and I are unique, unrepeatable, beloved children of God. Our neighbors cannot be as we are meant to be; they cannot fulfill our particular mission as we can. There will never, ever be anyone on this earth just like you or me.
God does not know waste. “We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random,” St. John Neumann once said. “God sees every one of us. He deigns to need every one of us. He creates every soul for a purpose.” Blessed and complete in himself, God may not need us properly speaking, but he deigns to allow us to be a part of his grand design. We are invited in and given a part to play. We matter.
Why now?
Wouldn’t it have been easier if we were born at some other time, with fewer difficulties and challenges?
Dear reader, in every age, the Church has stood in contrast to the world. Called to be in the world but not of it, the Church points beyond the ephemeral to the eternal, to Heaven. Different from previous ages, our challenges may be many, but our mission to confound the world through our joyfully countercultural witness remains the same.
We have been created for this time to be beacons of light, truth and goodness.
So it was for the patriarch Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers. Even amid great darkness, experiencing the brokenness of his world, his loving trust in God endured. Years later, he was set over Pharoah’s household and exercised shrewd judgment, providing for the world during famine.
When his brothers appeared before him one day, Joseph faced a dilemma: exact revenge with his new power, a decision the world would have understood, or choose mercy. Choosing the latter, he provided for his family and brought them to Egypt.
After their father Israel’s death, Joseph’s brothers feared for their lives and begged his forgiveness. Comforting them, Joseph said, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen 50:19-20).
Similarly, Queen Esther was chosen from the king’s harem to ascend to the throne. When she discovered the Jews were in danger of being slaughtered, she intervened at significant risk to her life. Encouraging her to act, Mordecai, who had taken Esther into his home following the death of her parents, said, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est 4:14).
And, of course, who can forget the example of our Blessed Mother Mary? A teenager, she courageously said yes to God’s call in her own time, bore our Savior and thus played an integral part in the history of salvation.
Dear reader, you and I were made for such a time as this.
Just as Joseph the patriarch, Queen Esther and our Blessed Mother Mary were called to particular missions, we are called to serve the mission of Christ and his Church today. Just as countless individuals would have perished without the “yes” of Joseph and Esther, our missions, too, have eternal significance. Just as Mary was called to bring Christ into the world, so are we called to bring him to all we meet.
You and I play an integral part in the mission of Christ and his Church today, at this very moment. The age might be difficult, but God has always raised up new saints in every difficult age to preach the Gospel and love his people; he does the same today with you and me.
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Mt 28:20
How is this possible? How can I do this?
It’s a fair question, one that Mary herself asked the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38). Living the command of Jesus to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” is daunting (Mt 28:19).
It’s worth remembering, dear reader, Jesus’ final words in the Gospel, spoken right after his command: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). Jesus is with us; he has not abandoned us. The Holy Spirit comes to guide, inspire, protect and move through us.
How can we live our mission? By abiding in relationship with the Trinity, receiving the love God desires to give us and allowing him to act in and through us. Take heart and be not afraid. In the words of the courageous St. Joan of Arc, you were born to do this. With Christ in us, all things are possible.