To Witness the Gospel, the Vocation of all the Baptized!
By Fr. Bill Kessler • Jan 17th, 2009 • Category: Fr. Bill's Sunday Sneak Peek
“Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas’ — which is translated Peter.”
Each one of has had a similar experience as did Peter. We have been called by name and been made over receiving a new name, sanctified by our baptism and called into the mission given to us by Christ. Each one of us has then a vocation by which we can fulfill our part in the plan of mercy God has set into motion through Christ his beloved son. In the world today we can get so bogged down with the day to day. The roar to the world around us makes it impossible for us to recognize when Jesus calls us by name. I suspect it has always been such, for as we heard in Samuel’s call it comes in the night when the young Samuel was asleep. I don’t know about you but most of us sleep through the night, indeed it was said of me that I could sleep through a tornado (This actually happened). Most times we are so tired at the end of our days it takes many hours of sleep or a bucket of water to be awakened. Then what can we do to hear the voice of our God? We need to spend time listening to God in our daily lives, time marked by silence. Actually it might be easier for us to get a message when we are sleeping… We have incredibly busy and crazy lives, yet we are called to times of silent contemplation as well as prayer. It is in these moments that each of us can hear the Voice of the Lord as did Samuel, as Does Peter. We are then able to respond as we are called. When we fail to listen and go lazily about our lives that we are failing as did Eli for there was no prophecy in the land of Israel. We have suffered this in the church and we all have seen the terrible works that came about from a failure to live according to the fullness of Gods Plan. Let us spend time before the Blessed Sacrament then and discern our call and the true call of the Church so to bring cleansing and healing to our Faith and indeed the whole world!
Peace,
Fr. Bill Kessler
Fr. Bill Kessler is the sole Roman Catholic Priest for 1 County, 2 Parishes, and Six Churches in a diocese in Illinois. Fr. Bill is also the host of the popular Technopriest podcast where you can hear Fr. Bill's homilies each week.
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