[10am Mass Recording of Homily #173a]
[12pm Mass Recording of Homily #173b]
[5pm Mass Video of Homily #173c]
“God’s Specific Mission, Just For You
(w/References to Catholic Social
Teaching, Christian Unity & SF Walk For Life)”
Homily #173 by Deacon Dennis
Purificacion
Jan. 19, 2020 (2nd Sun. in
Ordinary Time)
There’s a popular saying in human wisdom: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. In other words, in divine wisdom: “Man proposes but God disposes” (Prov. 19). Sure, we can plan all we want, but our plans do not always take us where we want to go. But perhaps that’s because God has something bigger – and even better – planned just for you.
In all the readings from the Word of God today, the common theme is this: You have a specific mission just for you. No one else can complete it for you. Just as every snowflake is unique, just as every angel is a unique species unto itself, so too you are so unique to God’s masterpiece of creation and plan of redemption of the human race that God has a specific mission just for you.
I.
In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God…he existed before me….” Then John explained God’s mission just for him: “[T]he reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.”
And in today’s very short Second Reading, St. Paul wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians also about God’s own specific mission just for him: “Paul, called to be an apostle by the will of God…”
Paul next described God’s specific mission to the Corinthians just for them: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, called to be holy.”
And then, in the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the Prophet Isaiah described God’s specific mission just for him: “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel…. Now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb.”
The Prophet Isaiah is like the Prophet Jeremiah who wrote about God’s own specific mission just for him: “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you” (Jer. 1:5).
And even in today’s Gospel acclamation, we hear of Jesus’ specific mission just for Him: “The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. To those who accepted him, he gave power to become children of God.”
So, thus far, we heard of specific missions for Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Paul, the Corinthians, and Jesus just for them. Now, we hear the specific mission just for you.
II
We sang in today’s Responsorial Psalm, “And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. Here, am I, Lord. I come to do your will.” I come to do your will (your purpose, your plan, your mission) specifically just for me that no one else has been given.
Notice, it’s not just about a general, collective mission for all of us. (I will get to that later.) Rather, I’m talking about the specific individual mission God has just for you. To discern your own specific mission, trust that God will not ask something impossible of you. He will give you the help, the charism, and the actual graces to complete that specific mission, even in the most difficult situations, just for you.
St. Thomas Aquinas taught that God will not give you more than you can handle; if God gives you a difficult mission, he will also give you a way out of it. [If time allows quote from “Way of the Lord Jesus”: Thomist theologian Germain Grisez said that each Christian fulfills the mission differently. So don’t compare. As St. Ignatius of Loyola said, comparing isn’t from God.]
To illustrate this, St. Therese wrote that she wondered why God has preferences, why all souls don’t receive an equal amount of graces, and how God showers favors on saints who had offended Him, like Paul and Augustine, great sinners who became great saints. St. Therese then wrote, “Jesus taught me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature.” She realized that there were different flowers in a garden: the rose, the lily, the violet, the daisy. She wrote, “I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her beauty…And so it is with the world of souls, Jesus’s garden. Jesus willed to create great souls like lilies and roses, but He has created smaller little flowers destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks at His feet.” And then she who describes herself as the Little Flower gathered by Jesus, writes, “Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.” [Repeat if needed.] “Here am I, Lord. I come to do your will.” The Little Flower reminds us that to fulfill our own individual missions God has entrusted to us to fulfill, all we have to do is do His will.
III.
God has a specific mission to fulfill just for you. Here are some examples: The universal Church is called to spread the Gospel, but you have a specific mission just for you to do this in your own unique way with your family and friends. Also, the universal Church this week prays for Christian unity, but you have a specific mission to promote Christian unity in a way just for you. [If time permits, explain the Great Schism of 1054, the Protestant Reformation/Revolution around 1520, and the Second Vatican Council’s efforts to restore full unity. For the Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church wants the Church to breathe with two lungs. Also, the universal Church is called to spread the Gospel of Life and protect innocent human life in the womb and to help women who are hurting and who’ve lost their babies, but you have a specific mission just for you to build a civilization of love and life. Perhaps it is through prayer by word or by deed. Next Sat. is Walk For Life, where both Catholics and Protestants work together. Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. martin Luther King, called this the greatest civil rights issue of our generation. The Diocese also has a program called Project Rachel to assist women heal from abortion. Finally, the universal Church is called to serve those in need through a body of teaching called Catholic Social Doctrine, among families and even strangers, but you have a specific mission to help those in need in a way that is just for you. [Omit if irrelevant: As one of the wives of the deacons told me during diaconate formation, “Your ministry will take on a different form” just for you.] I invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what specific mission God has given you, and then to trust that He will help you accomplish it, no matter how difficult.
In closing, while we all have a common mission as members of the universal Church, you have a specific mission of how to complete this common task just for you. So yes, tell God your plans. Make him laugh. I’m sure He won’t mind if you do. But when you do tell Him your plans, be sure to tell him, “Here am I, Lord. I come to do your will,” your plan, your mission.
And one day, may God make you laugh in Heaven, make you rejoice, make you smile with a joy that can never be taken away. May God and you laugh together because you fulfilled God’s specific plan just for you.
“Here am I, Lord. I come to do Your will” just for You.
