What is my purpose?
Have you ever wondered that... God...why did you put me here?
I imagine most young people ask SIMILAR questions,
like ... What career should I study for... Whom should I date and marry? And that all important question of the
universe... Vanilla or chocolate ice cream? (of course the answer is vanilla…)
While those are important questions, they take on a
different meaning when you ask it this way... GOD what is YOUR purpose for me?
I can just imagine that’s what happened to the two
main characters in our readings today... Samuel and John the Baptist. They both had been dedicated to God by their
parents...but they still had to wonder sometimes ...what DOES God want me to
do? I imagine John was sitting in the
Synagogue one Sabbath – and the sermon was particularly boring, so he did what
most of us would do… he read the bulletin.
… and on the second page at the bottom, he noticed that God was looking
for somebody to do a special job.
That’s all it said.
No job description. None of the
ordinary stuff like – must be able to type 100 words a minute, must be able to
cook and clean windows, … no contact information. No mention of what would be expected of him.
But he listened.
He took it as a nudge from God, and he went about doing what he felt God
was calling him to do…baptizing people and preaching Repentance…. That was
it... Baptizing and preaching, Baptizing
and preaching, day after day. And there
had to be days he wondered.... Is this it?
Is this my purpose? Until today –
quite out of the blue – his REAL purpose became clear. HIS job was to point out the Lamb of
God! His job was simply to point people
to Jesus! All that Baptizing and preaching was just to get
people prepared to meet the messiah. And
by him doing HIS job, it started a domino effect that continues even today.
Notice in that Gospel - two of John’s own disciples
were paying attention… they were looking for God – so when John pointed out
Jesus, they immediately went to follow him.
After spending the rest of the day with Jesus, they were convinced…and
so excited that THEY went to tell others.
Notice who Andrew told: Peter –
the first Pope!
Can you imagine if God’s purpose for you was to
introduce Jesus to the first Pope! A guy
could get a big head after something like that.
Maybe you and I wish WE had a big, important job to do like that – but
maybe instead of the Pope, our job is to introduce our family to Jesus. Maybe it’s somebody at work. Maybe we spend every day cleaning and
cooking, cleaning and cooking and wonder is this it God? Is this my purpose? But in doing that job, you are physically
SHOWING your family and others what selfless love is. Your job is to point them to Jesus.
Maybe it's our job simply to pray for people who are
sick or injured.
I was told a story just a couple weeks ago about a
local miracle. That’s what he called it
– a miracle. This guy’s daughter had
been badly injured in an auto accident several years back. She had severe head trauma, and was in
intensive care in Louisville for weeks.
One day, it seemed all was going south.
She had 105 fever, the pressure in her brain kept increasing despite the
care she was receiving… and the nurses admitted there was nothing else they
could do. This man was trying to deal
with all of this bad news when a neighbor lady from back home walked in. It was a strange time of the day for
visitors, but he went out to visit with them.
The neighbor lady said, “I’m here because God told me to come pray for
your daughter”. Well, this guy was like
– “Hey, it can’t hurt… in fact, as bad as things are getting, it will take a
miracle”. So they went in – and to make
a long story short – this lady prayed – fast and loud. This guy was amazed of the prayers that came
from this woman’s mouth… and when she was done – something amazing
happened. The sun came out. It had been overcast and dreary for days on
end, and at that very moment, the sun came out and was at such an angle that it
shone right into the room. He was
awestruck by the beauty of it – and by the improbability of it. He said the sun had to be in just the right
spot to shine between the two buildings next to the hospital. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever
seen. They all went back to the waiting
room to talk a bit more – and when he went back to his daughter’s room – her
temperature was down to 101 and the pressure in her brain had returned to
normal. A miracle! The next day, she was taken after weeks in intensive care, out of
intensive care, she was taken to her own room.
Now – you COULD call it a coincidence – you COULD
say that God could have worked that miracle without anybody’s help… but the
fact is: this lady LISTENED to God’s
instructions. As pointless and silly as
it may have seemed at the time – she drove to Louisville to do God’s will....to
fulfill her purpose.
She was listening.
I wonder …..how many of us would listen?
Ask yourself this question...How many miracles have NOT happened today
because I didn’t do my job? How many
times has god wanted me to act, but I wasn't listening?
One of the Catholic CD’s I was listening to last
week… I think it was Fr. Larry Richards… He said that “We meet Jesus in His
Word”. In other words, in order for us
to learn about Jesus and his purpose for us, the best way to do that is to read
the bible. But how many of us actually
read it? Maybe we don’t feel comfortable
reading the bible? Maybe we think we
have to have Father or a Deacon up here to interpret it for us. Nope.
The Bible is for everyone.
So – in order to help us all get more familiar with
how to dig into the bible, our adult formation team has two things coming up
for Lent. First is the small group
scripture study that was talked about at Mass the past couple of weekends. Those groups will start meeting in early
February and go through the end of Lent.
The other option we’re calling “Sunday School for Everyone”. We’ll meet at 9 a.m. each Sunday during Lent…
that’s after Mass at SC and before Mass at SR. We will dig a little deeper into the readings
for the day. Hopefully, in addition to
being a time for fellowship and sharing, it will help us all to become more
comfortable with cracking open the Bible.
In fact, I think it would be cool if we get to the point that everybody
would tell me what YOU would have preached about if you were the one standing
up here.
As an example of the sort of thing we might dig into
at Sunday School - I want to point out something from that first reading. There is a phrase right BEFORE our reading
which we didn’t get to hear. Let me read
the whole sentence: “The lamp of God was
not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord....”. “The lamp of God was not yet extinguished…” The
Lamp of God referred to the light that continuously burned in the temple which
signified the Lord’s presence…kind of like our Sanctuary Lamp - This red candle here signifies that Jesus is
still in the Tabernacle. God was present
in the Temple … and that’s where Samuel heard him.
You and I have an opportunity that may not last
forever. OUR sanctuary lamp is still
lit. The Lord is still present right
here in our Church. How many actually
come here to listen for his will? We may
not have to SLEEP in church like Samuel did… but We can still come to adoration
on Friday evenings or just come to church anytime to ask God- what do you want
me to do? Try it sometime. Sit down in front of the tabernacle and simply
say… Speak Lord, your servant is listening….
But be prepared… He will probably have a job for you
to do! Because it’s when we’re about
DOING God’s will – that’s when he will reveal to us our true purpose.
