Dec 10: One Kingdom: Many Different Vocations

Geertgen tot Sint Jans: John the Baptist in the Wilderness


Paolo Veronese: Jesus in the House of Levi (detail)

Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:16-19

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon;’ the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (NRSV, Mt 11:16-19a) !’ ”

Lord God, we thank you for so many gifts, especially for the gift of your divine life that you share with us, and for forgiveness when we turn away from you in sin, but even as you forgive us and once more pour out your life upon us, sin has its own consequences which continue to bring a certain confusion into our lives. The sin of the world, what Augustine called original sin, has its inevitable effect for us.

We search here and there in our experience for something to bring meaning into our lives but, because of the effect of sin in us, the search often brings with it only greater confusion. Some may try to flee the world to find peace; others may seek it in conviviality with others. All without success.

Jesus tells us how foolish we are. There is only one reality that brings meaning for us. It is the other worldly reality, Lord God, of your kingdom, even now bursting forth into the world. Jesus tells us to accept first your kingdom and then to organize everything in our lives around that one choice. Your divine life ruling our lives will inevitably find a different expression in each of us according to the situation in which we find ourselves.

John had his calling, that of forerunner. Jesus, of course, had his own mission to accomplish, that of Messiah. Lord, each us is called to give expression to your life in ways special to our talents and situation.

We have learned from your Son Jesus that no project within this world, however noble it may seem, has meaning if it is made an end in itself. All meaning comes from subordination, Lord, to your coming kingdom. Some, as John, may find you by listening in the desert; others by searching for you in the marketplace. For all of us it is your coming kingdom, Lord God, that alone can give value to our lives.

Help us, Lord, first to surrender our lives to your coming kingdom and then to discover what each of us must do, one different from the other, to manifest your life to all of our sisters and brothers.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.