Chosen Not for Ourselves, But The World

Bishop Barron gave a great homily on “Why We Are Chosen” this past Sunday. His main point was that we are not chosen for ourselves, but rather, for the sake of the world.

How many of us really live our lives in such a way? 1) Feeling chosen by God for His purpose. 2) Recognizing and living our unique call to draw others to the Lord for the sake of the world.

He made the point that we are all given the special privilege of being baptized as Catholics. That didn’t happen by accident. We were chosen. If you’re like me, I take my Baptism for granted. I don’t think about it much. I’m Catholic, that’s my religious identity, but I don’t go so far as to recognize that it was a special privilege and a special choosing by God.

But it was. Not everyone is baptized Catholic.

Not only that, but we were baptized that we may become missionaries and draw more and more people to the Lord. Many times, we don’t live that way. We live for the sake of ourselves -- and make decisions through that lens: What’s best for me? What are my desires and wants? What’s in it for me? What will give me the most joy and happiness? 

How often are we considering our day to day decisions through the lens of what is best for the world and God’s mission? 

Then from Baptism, there emerges our vocation to love God and neighbor and become the person we were meant to be in God’s eyes. We are given a form of life to grow in and model holiness whether marriage, priesthood, religious life, or consecrated single life. We are given work to do to build up the Kingdom of God based with our gifts and talents.

In this culture, we need to remind ourselves that we weren’t chosen for ourselves. We were chosen for the sake of the world, and the world is God’s world. That means our lives were meant for mission and service.

It’s not about our life, but rather Christ’s life … lived through us.