We Have a Purpose

I have been reading the daily meditations of Wilfrid Stinissen in his book: This is the Day the Lord has Made.  Stinissen has always been a favorite writer of mine.  I thought today’s meditation to be quite simple, yet full of meaning.  He titled it: God’s Servants

           

Jesus would have been able to carry out all he has to do without the cooperation of anyone else.  But he doesn’t want to: He lets us be “God’s Servants” (1Cor 3:9).  At the wedding in Cana, Mary and the servants get to play a decisive role.  And when Jesus wants to feed the crowds, he involves the disciples and a little boy.

Jesus asks Philip: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” (Jn 6:5).  He feels responsible for the many hungry people, but shares the responsibility with the disciples and deliberates with them.  And the disciples give their suggestions.  Philip thinks it is impossible to feed such a gathering.  Andrew has discovered a little boy who has five loaves and two fish, but presumes that is too little for so many.

Jesus uses this little human contribution to carry out his intent.  Gratefully, he receives the bread and fish.  Jesus could have arranged everything himself, letting bread fall from the sky into the hands of each one present.  But he doesn’t give us what we need without our collaboration.  He lets the disciples distribute what the boy has donated, and they are all more than satisfied.

God takes us seriously.  Even if God alone saves, he lets many of us play an active and decisive role.  Without Mary, God would not have become one of us.  Without priests, the Church would have no sacraments.

We are God’s servants: This is our dignity and, at the same time, our formidable responsibility.

 

I have been blessed on some occasions to see how I have made a difference in this world, in some small way --- some of which I have written about here.  Despite the examples above, and my own personal examples, many people in the various discussion groups I attend still question:  But what can I do?  They want me, or someone else, to give them a specific example so they can say: Yes, that might work for you, but I can’t because ….  They always have a reason why they can’t do something for God.  Or, some belittle the importance of actions.  If they didn’t see or hear of the loaves feeding everyone, they would be siding with Andrew: Naw, that isn’t going to make a difference.  And so they do nothing. 

I don’t criticize such people; I was one of them.  I was used to doing something, and seeing the complete results of my work.  I have lots of awards for things I have done.  It took many, many years for me to finally see that I can do things which don’t result in a completed work, BUT, my small participation was a crucial step without which there would have been no good ending.  AND, it took even more years for me to be content with not totally completing an action by myself.  I pray the prayer every morning: Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace.  An instrument is something that is used.  It may be critical to some wonderful end result, but the instrument by itself cannot accomplish that.

I, you, we need to take that to heart.  We have a crucial purpose in this world; we were created for a reason, BUT:

We are God’s servants: This is our dignity and, at the same time, our formidable responsibility.   

 

Note:  Because of the tremendous number of scam comments I have had on this blog in recent week, I activated an option which says only people with Google accounts can make comments.  It's the only way I could find which seems might stop the scams.  Sorry if this is an inconvenience.  If this stops the comments, I'll try taking off the option in a few weeks.