I'll Be Calling YOU- OOO- OOO

Hi folks,

When I was a fifth grader at St. Francis School in Loretto the 5th-8th graders went on a field trip to the Kentucky Fairgrounds. There in the East Wing were Catholic missionaries from all over the world and representing religious orders from all over. Their goal was to interest us in religious, and particularly in missionary, vocations. There was a priest dressed in an all white robe who was playing a game that really fascinated me. He smelled like cigars. But he had mazes on sheets of paper and we had to work them with a pencil by looking at what we were doing through a mirror. When I got my chance to do it I zipped right through it, while other kids were having a real tough time trying to do all of the lefts and rights while looking at things reversed. His point in doing this kind of puzzle was just as this exercise forced to think in a different way, so we were being asked by God to think about our lives and our future in a different way. I spent a long time at his booth eventually helping him get more kids to do the puzzle. Before I left with my school mates to return to Loretto he told me that he thought God had a special purpose for me and that he thought I could be a good priest. God had planted a new seed in me!

All three of today’s readings are about God’s callings. We hear Isaiah’s call in the first reading. St. Paul gives his account of his own call from God in his First Letter to the Corinthians. In the Gospel we see Jesus (a carpenter and travelling preacher) trying to give fishing instructions to professional fisherman. It would be similar to me going into the operating room and telling the surgeon, “Cut right there!” But Jesus was trying to get Peter, James, and John to start doing some reversed thinking themselves. Instead of fishing for smelly fish Jesus was asking them to help Him fish for needy people. Their tendency was to blow Him off and humor Him. But Jesus changed their whole lives and they received a new purpose and a new vocation in life.

We are all called to serve God. More importantly, God never quits calling us to service. Whether we are 11 or 111 God wants us and needs us to take a look at our lives and ask God, “Where do you need me now?” But we need to have ears, eyes, minds, hearts, and souls receptive to God’s call. Sometimes it takes a priest who smells like cigars to wake us up. Sometimes we have to be challenged in our normal daily routine. Sometimes we think that we’re too old, or too young, or too dumb, or too smart, or too (you fill in the blank) to be something special for God. But God is always trying to step into our “sometimes” and help us be something new for Him. Please pray that you will hear God and respond with generosity the next time He calls.

peace,
Fr. Chuck