PaddlingPadre

            It is too little, the Lord says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. This prophecy of Isaiah really is an astounding thing, as something that goes beyond any reasonable expectation. First, the promise which the Lord says is too little, that Israel should be God’s servant and the scattered tribes be restored, is already something that is beyond any human expectation. No other nation has a God who is so near as the Lord God is to us, as we read, marveling, from Deuteronomy. And not only this, but that, in the wake of the twin disasters of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, each of which had in their respective turn seen the exile, first of the ten northern tribes and then the southern two, Jerusalem and the Temple being finally destroyed, a reversal of this, a restoration of Israel’s survivors (and notice we say Israel’s survivors, the tribes of Jacob, and not merely the survivors of Judah) is beyond what any human being could reasonably have expected.

            And yet all this, as great as it is, is yet too small a thing. For not only has God drawn close to Israel in a totally unprecedented way, not only did he, by Cyrus’ decree, begin to gather his scattered people back to Jerusalem, but the destiny which he has in mind for his people is even greater than this: that Israel should be a light to the nations, that God’s salvation might reach to the ends of the earth.

            This ultimate destiny of Israel should be familiar to us. God had promised from the very beginning of his covenant relationship with Abraham that he would make of Abraham’s descendants a blessing for all nations. And, of course, we have but recently celebrated the great feast of this promise’s realization: the Feast of the Epiphany, when magi came to adore the newborn king, representing in their persons, by a prophetic sign, all the nations of the earth who, from the time of Christ, have not ceased to come to streaming to Christ to adore him.

            Now a remark that I made in passing during my Epiphany homily was that one can see in Israel’s calling to be a light to the nations a prefigurement of the evangelizing mission of the Church. And that is a very important point, because just as in the case of Israel, which was not called merely to be a people particularly close to God, but rather to be also an instrument in making God close for the rest of the world, so we are not called to be Christians merely for ourselves – it is not enough for us to simply draw close to God for our own sakes, but rather in our ears we ought always to hear ringing those words which our Lord spoke to his disciples at his Ascension: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

            Of course, we shouldn’t insist on too strong of a division between these points, between, that is, the need for us to be nourished ourselves and the responsibility that we have to announce the gospel. For after all, the mark of a Christian is to love as Christ loved, to display, that is to say, that same sort of kenotic, self-abnegating love which Christ showed on the cross, that love by which Christ did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but rather emptied himself. That sort of love is a love that naturally goes beyond itself, and so if we are loving as Christ loved, if we are being transformed in Christ and sustained in Christ, then the fruitfulness of that love will follow as a matter of course, even as the love between spouses, which is an image of that love, has its own natural fruitfulness.

            Now, having said that, the way in which that love will manifest its fruitfulness in each of our lives will be different according as our vocations are different. There are some, for instance, like Mary who chose the better part, who are called by God to follow him with an immediacy and an intimacy that leaves the world radically behind, and this would be something that we see most emphatically in religious life, in monasteries and in convents, where religious brothers and sisters give themselves over to contemplation, striving to live, even in this life, in the world to come, supporting the Church the mission with their prayers and in their witness. And there is a way in which that is truly the highest sort of life that one could live – it is the sort of thing that all of us, I think, should foster a desire for, a desire for that intimacy, a desire for setting aside the distractions of the world to follow Christ with a single-minded intensity, even if that is not what we have been called to ourselves.

            Another way in which the love of Christ can manifest its fruitfulness is in more active sorts of ministry, such the diocesan priesthood or in more mission-oriented orders, such as the Jesuits or the Fransalians, Fr. Jijesh’s order. Here, there is still a calling to follow Christ with a greater intensity, hence the promises or vows of chastity, obedience, and, in the case of religious, poverty, but in way that is less withdrawn, that is, as it were, a little bit messier, a little bit more dangerous, as the priest or religious strives to live in the world without succumbing to it, endeavoring to win souls to Christ, to minister the mysteries to God’s people, and to continue Christ’s liberating work.

            And then too, as we already mentioned, there is the vocation of marriage, which has a greater degree of exclusivity, insofar as it is directed between one person and another, but which in the intensity of that exclusivity naturally goes beyond itself in such a remarkable way so as to bring new life into the world, the family forming the bedrock of human society.

            Now as we learn from St. Paul, the Body of Christ has many members, each of which has its function, and so we must avoid thinking that any one part can do without the others. The Church needs religious brothers and sisters, she needs secular priests and missionaries, and she needs faithful and fruitful marriages, since it is only when the body is complete and healthy that it is able to live out that evangelizing mission that is at the heart of the Church’s very existence.

            And if that is true, then we, for our part, need to be open to whatever form of life it is that God is calling us to. If you’re already in your vocation, as a spouse, for instance, that means constantly rededicating yourself to your marriage in a spirit of Christian zeal. And if you haven’t found your vocation yet, and I’m speaking especially here to the young, be open to possibility that God could be calling you to any of these ways of life – because, while its true that numerically fewer are called to religious life or to priesthood, it is nevertheless true that some are indeed so called, and if we close ourselves off to that possibility then there is no way that we will hear God’s voice.

            And so, let us hear again those words of Isaiah, recognizing, we hope ourselves in those words: It is too little for you to be my servant; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.