Called from the Womb for a Unique Mission

Our parish keeps growing. Currently, there are 8,236 registered parishioners in 3,239 families. I fear that it is easy for people to feel very lost in the crowd. It is easy for us to be overwhelmed by the numbers of our peers. It is easy for us all to feel that we are insignificant, just one of many.

That's not the Lord's view, though. He recognizes that we are unique. And he sees infinitely more diversity in the people he created than a medical scientist can find by analyzing DNA. After all, he formed each of us in his image and likeness. We each have the capacity of bringing a unique reflection of God to the world.

He has a particular mission, a particular call for each of us. What the Lord said to Jeremiah in this Sunday's first reading he says to each of us: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you."

There is something in each of us that agrees with this on our best days. We all have good days and we all have bad days. There are plenty of days when we just consider ourselves as one of many. These are the days when we justify our behavior by saying that we are merely conforming to our society. We rationalize our actions behind the old: Everybody is doing this. And then we are just one of many because we refuse to take a step away from conformity and take a step into our divine individuality. These are our bad days, or months or years. But then we have our good days. On our good days we are not concerned with whether or not our best selves are different from everyone around us. On our good days, we are only concerned that we allow God's love to flow through our individuality, our talents, our uniqueness. On our best days we manifest our exceptional image of God to the world.

When we respond to the call to be the person God created us to be, we enter into a realm of faith that demands courage. Jeremiah, responding to the call to be a prophet, was mocked and persecuted. He was spat at and beaten. They threw him into a cistern and left him for dead. All because he would not conform to what the other false prophets were saying. This was his reward for responding to the call of God.

Jesus, responding to the call to proclaim a new type of Messiah among the people, was mocked by his immediate family and ridiculed among his friends and neighbors, the people who watched him grow up. They laughed him out of the Synagogue and tried to kill him right there in his own home town of Nazareth. This was his reward for being faithful to his Father.

"Faith, true faith, is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequence," Kirsopp Lake, a theologian and spiritual writer who died about fifty years ago. Again, "Faith, true faith, is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequence,"

The exercise of living our divine individuality results in a conflict with society that would rather conform than be. This is a realm of faith far deeper than the mere recitation of dogmas or performance of routine actions. This is the realm of faith that draws us into the mystery of our individual relationship with God. We must have the courage to be that unique person the Lord calls us to be without regard to the difficulties others might have with our exercise of our divine individuality. We must be willing to speak the truth that is at the core of our lives without concern as to how others will react to this truth. We must be our best selves.

Does this mean that we have to avoid community? No, it means the exact opposite. We must seek out community. We must embrace community. We must be foundational members of the community of the called who blend their individuality into a greater reflection of the presence of God among his people.

People are drawn to small Christian communities because they want to share their divine call with others who are open to their individuality. At the same time, people are drawn to small Christian communities because they want to enjoy the presence of the image of God that others bring to the community. These communities do not assimilate the individual but develop the gifts of the individual. Perhaps the greatest American Catholic of the last century was Thomas Merton. He was drawn into the Trappist Community of Gethsemane because the monks there dressed alike, followed the same schedule, lived the same routine every day, every week, every year. Thomas Merton was drawn to the Trappist not because he wanted to be assimilated by a community. He was drawn to the Trappists because he realized that this is where he could best allow his Divine Individuality to flourish.

I hate being a cliche. I hate being a stereo type. I hate TV programs and movies about priests that portray all priests as out of touch pius residues of an age that really never existed.

I hate it when I sin, because then I am just a cliche. When I sin I choose to be just another one of everyone else who is doing this or that.

I love it when I have the courage to be my best self. In those rare moments of my life I can meditate on the presence of God working his wonders within me, around me and through me.

How about you? Are you aware of your best self? Do you realize how much courage it takes to be the person the Lord created you to be? Do you realize that when you are that image of God the world had never seen before and will never witness again after your death, you are one with God in the mystery of his existence in your life?

Do we realize that when we have the courage to allow God to work through us, we find infinite meaning to our lives? Then we are numbers no longer. Then we are prophets of the most high, delivering the unique facet of God's truth he has called us from our mother's wombs to proclaim to the world.

Who are those people whose lives have made a significant contribution to the world? Who are those people whose lives have had meaning? Who are those people who have risen above the numbers? Only those who have dedicated their lives to actualizing the truth of the Lord that they alone possess. We call these people "set aside for God." We call them "Holy." We call those who actualize their Divine Individuality "saints."

And we are called from our mother's wombs to be among them.