The Lord, when choosing His twelve disciples, chose from an undistinguished and inconspicuous group of men and women. The Apostles were mostly fishermen. The women who followed him and who hearkened to His every word had no royal blood or prominent careers. They, men and women, were regular people, responsible, eager to learn, happy to receive good news, who had a deep and burning faith in Jesus Christ. They also were faithful and lived in empowering hope.
The Lord didn’t choose from the elites, probably because they would be susceptible to pride that would not allow them to follow an average, nondescript man who came without credentials or pedigree. And yet these men and women were charged with proclaiming a new kingdom of love, forgiveness, and mercy and were instructed to love their neighbor as themselves. They were not provided with weapons of destruction. Neither were they fortified with means of transportation or provisions of food and clothing.
And yet in a few short years they, with the power of the Holy Spirit, performed mighty acts that changed the course of mankind. Not in an instant, but day by day, one foot following the other, one good deed succeeding the other. It didn’t happen overnight, but they persevered and they, without fully appreciating what they had accomplished, changed the world.
They were joined by hundreds and thousands, until, in just a few centuries the entire Roman Empire, that at the beginning was underwhelmed, became overwhelmed by a simple message lived by unexceptional people who altered the course of history by their faith and acts of love. They didn’t do it alone, for they knew that the Lord, the Holy Spirit was with them. God had given them a mission. They were undaunted by the skeptics, not defeated by those who wanted to undermine them and thwart their efforts.
This is the Christian Faith that has been bequeathed to us, to you and me. The LORD has chosen you as faithful members to do an impossible worldly task, to change men and women, boys and girls into servants of the Almighty God.
I was asked to participate in a funeral for a woman whose name I recognized, but I just couldn’t recall her face. The day of the funeral, I was anxious to greet her family as I knew this would help me remember their loved one so that I could validate her virtues that had inspired people who knew her and that affirmed that she had led a meaningful life.
As I arrived at church, a woman greeted me who was not a parishioner, but who had been a close friend of the woman who had passed away. I commented, “She was a good lady, wasn’t she?” I, of course, was searching for something to build my eulogy on. She immediately took the opportunity and with great eagerness proclaimed how she was a dear friend for over sixteen years and that she had meant a lot to her, and that others had even commented that the deceased woman, through her many acts of kindness, had changed the lives of those around her.
Once I had heard that, I knew that the Lord had given me what I was looking for. It tied into the Scripture that I was going to use from the Book of Revelation Chapter 21, “Behold I make all things new.” I related my experience to the deceased’s family and to all of her friends at the funeral. I asked them, “Isn’t that what you and I would want inscribed on our tombstone? Here lies a person who changed my life.” Isn’t this why Jesus Christ our Lord has put us on this earth to be His vessels changing the lives of each other?
We all have experienced the power of another’s witness to his or her faith. How our mother, father, sister, brother, sister, teacher, friend or even someone we don’t know too well influenced our Christian formation? Throughout our lives God has sent us people bringing us messages and powerful examples of faith and love, leadership and sacrifice. God, in His inimitable and surprising manner, delivers His messages to us through the most unassuming and often unattractive messengers, even through people we had judged harshly or who seemed so inept.
The truth that became clear to me, and I hope to you, especially to those who have accepted the mantle of leadership in our parishes, is the need to focus on God’s invitation and accept to be one of His apostles, disciples, children, and friends. We all must permit God to make us His vessels to change our fellow human beings and ourselves.
How can we, through God, change other people’s lives? We know that it is not by telling them what to do. That is too easy. I believe the way the Lord uses us to change other’s lives is not by asking us to tell them what to do, but to show them what to be!