Finding the true mission God has called us for.

Finding the true mission God has called us for.

Each of us is called by God to a specific ministry not because of any quality we have but to what we can become.  Of course some attributes that are within our abilities to attract others to read our writing or listen to the voices we have received may be a start but they may not become the ultimate plan that God has in mind.  

It is noticeable that many ministers may feel that one gift we are endowed with is not where the Holy Spirit will send us.  My voice is one I had used before holy orders just by reading at Mass.  But after ordination the first direction the Lord sent me to was hospital ministry.  I fell in love with spending time at bedsides of suffering souls and learned that listening to their grief, some facing death, and all feeling that God cared about their loss of strength and hope.  In many cases you become a guide that finds suffering people are the very ones who will share things with you rather than anyone else.  Here we discover the people who really trust the minister who will listen and not try to convince them they will improve.  Doctors use their ability to treat and heal some who are able to get up or give the sad news to some who may enter hospice care.  Our task is not treating illnesses of the body but illnesses of the soul.  I can never forget the many people that called on my ministry to announce their desire to commit suicide, or those that feel lost because a loved one rejected them.  Sometimes you may be the only hope that God didn’t forget them in their deepest distress.  You are Christ to them and your touch of personal caring may be the last sign for them that God entered their room through you.

A ministry like that is more meaningful than giving a homily at Mass, or writing a blog that many will expound on with praise.  Take a look at some of the incidents where Jesus spent time with individuals who were on the verge of despair.  (1) Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”  Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and he said, “I do will it.  Be made clean.”  And the leprosy left him immediately.  (Lk 5: 12 - 13).  (2) He journeyed to a city named Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.  As he drew near the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.  When the Lord saw her he was moved with pity for her.  He said to her, “Do not weep.”  He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted , and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”  (Lk 7: 11 - 14).  (3) When Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him,  And a man named Jarius, an official of the synagogue, came forward.  He fell at the feet of Jesus  and begged him to come to his house, because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying.  Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; just have faith and she will be saved.”  (Lk 8: 40 - 42, 50).  

Of course these were miracles that Jesus performed, but it also is an example that we confer healings on people who are sick spiritually and have emotional problems that only you may be able to confront.  We are not psychologists or marriage counselors, but we are God’s emissaries with the message of God’s love and unconditional healing of sin and compassion.  They need to know that you are there to bring them God through your spirit and the Holy Spirit working through you.  

Ralph B.Hathaway