What does God want from you?

   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.