Do You Hear God Calling You To New Life?
2024년 1월 14일Do You Hear God Calling You To New Life?
< Second Sunday in Ordinary Time >
Today’s readings tell the story of God calling young Samuel to be a prophet, and Jesus calling Andrew and his brother Simon to become disciples. Samuel was sleeping in the Temple when he heard God’s call, but he didn’t know anything about God until Eli, a priest and judge, taught him how to respond. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, but left to follow Jesus. Andrew then told his brother Simon and Jesus changed his name to Cephas, Hebrew for Peter, which means Rock. The Church reads these scriptures to you today to remind you that God is also calling you! Like Samuel, you might not recognize God’s voice at first. Or you might feel unworthy or uncomfortable to accept Jesus calling you to discipleship.
God already knows your sins, faults and failures—and is calling you anyway. To be a disciple doesn’t mean to imitate a saint or become someone else. It means to trust God to show you how to become the best version of you that you can be. Look at Peter! Jesus changed his name to “Rock.” In Matthew’s gospel Jesus explains “upon this rock I will build my church.” We know Peter was very stubborn and somewhat slow. In Korean he’d be called 돌대가리, or stone head! But Jesus recognized that this could also be a virtue. A rock is solid, is hard to move, and makes a good foundation upon which to build his church. Just like a student isn’t a doctor just because they got accepted into Harvard Medical school, discipleship is a process. God is teaching us every day how to be kind, patient, forgiving, loving, and joyful. And no, none of us is worthy. God doesn’t call us because we are worthy; God calls us each day because God loves us. And the Eucharist we are about to receive gives us the strength and courage to say yes to God and yes to life.