What is distracting you from your purpose?
What does God want from you?
Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash
We are all called to do different tasks. “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” [1 Corinthians 12:12-13] Not all parts of the Body of Christ do the same tasks, but they work together for the body.
It is our baptism that has made us one body. And it is our baptism that gives us our tasks. Not that we fully know them or can fulfill them immediately when we are baptized, but that we are set aside as children of God, predestined for our tasks by Our Eternal Father. What we do share is that we are to live out our baptism fully, in order that we fulfill that which we have been predestined to do as part of the Body of Christ.
How do we know our baptismal calling? We need to spend time listening. Not listening to the world and all of its distractions, but listening to Our Father that has set aside our tasks as members of the body.
Being set aside as part of the Body of Christ by our baptism has made us enemies. The Devil, his demons, and the world. “[B]ut take courage, I have conquered the world.” [John 16:33] We will be shunned by the world. We are not destined for this world though. We are destined to be with “Our Father who art in Heaven”.
The Body of Christ will suffer as Jesus suffered. After all, if we want to share in the Body of Christ’s glory, we have to share in the Body of Christ’s suffering. We will suffer. Jesus has called us all to carry our cross, but not in anger at the cross. No, we should rejoice like Jesus at what He accomplished with His cross. His suffering was directed at us with love. He did not suffer just to suffer.
We all suffer, but we really need to realize these sufferings are a sharing in Christ’s suffering. A sharing in Christ’s love. We must direct our sufferings in order to see then as such. “Jesus, I offer this suffering up for my [wife][daughter][son][family]” or something likewise.
Mary, you united your sufferings to Jesus’ ultimate suffering most perfectly and, as such, you have been united in Jesus’ glory most perfectly in Heaven. Amen.
About the Author
I am an adopted son of God through baptism, though still a great sinner. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and 11 lovely children, 3 of which have gone to Heaven before their birth.
I love the Rosary and started sharing little Catholic reflections with others. My little reflections have helped deepen my faith and I hope they can help others as well. Though not always fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, I enjoy when He takes over and seeing what direction He takes the reflection.
Please say a prayer for me and I will continue to pray for all who read my little reflections, especially for them to be read as the Holy Spirit intends. St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for the success of my little reflections and for all of Catholic365 and its readers.
