Beauty of Being Chosen!

it's very hard for a kid in today's culture of sports and activities not to come across times when captains are selected and the anxiety of being chosen begins.  Now in my own experience, if I was good at the sport, it always felt great to see the disappointment of the other captain's face when he couldn't choose me, while at the same time, it was very difficult to swallow my pride when I was chosen last. It was as if people were bluntly telling me that I was not wanted and the feeling of rejection pierced my heart!

This desire to be chosen (or the feeling of not being chosen) does not only find itself in games and sports, but also in love!  How beautiful and exciting it is when you fall in love and the person you have fallen for has also chosen you!  I recently had a friend, on the day of her wedding say to her spouse, "I choose you!"  The words every spouse wants to hear from their loved ones.  All love stories are based on the idea of being chosen by the other.  

This desire to be chosen is no different in the areas of our faith!  It is also an area that we constantly forget about!  We need to remind constantly that the Lord, God has chosen us!  I recently came across the following quote:  

"This is one way of stating the difference between gods and men.  Gods choose; men are chosen.  What men lose when they become as free as gods is precisely that sense of being chosen, which encourages them, in their gratitude, to take their subsequent choices seriously" - Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic

In a society with strong emphasis on freedom, we have become as free as gods (being able to choose many things in life).  But by being caught up in the ability to choose, we actually lose something very important; the excitement of being chosen.  This story of the human person isn't new!  Actually we see this explained in the story of Adam and Eve, where the serpent tempts them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil so that they would become like God!  In grasping after that freedom, they lose their identity of being chosen as God's children.  

The Christian faith reversing the conditions of the fall points to this redeemed reality - that God has chosen us!  John 15:16 - "You did not choose me, but I who chose you!"  God has chosen us!  God who is love, has revealed his love for us in Christ!   He sent his only Son for us!  God continually chooses to bring us into communion of persons in the Trinity. This simple understanding should leave us speechless, smiling, and finding great joy!  

If we are struggling to smile or finding ourselves with lack of joy, we need to remind ourselves of those times that God's love has been revealed his love for us, we were reminded of being chosen.  We need to remind ourselves of the story of Christ, when God made the decision to act within human history and intervene on our behalf and reveal His love for us!  

Let us call to mind John 15:16 - "You did not choose me, but I who chose you!" and proceed to jump and down in excitement!  God has chosen us!

I Want My Flesh-Pots!!! The Need for the Eucharist, the True Bread from Heaven!

I recently taught my 8th grade students at MTCA, while I was on my internship assignment, the similarities between the story of Israel and the story of our lives.  

The following picture was drawn not so neatly on the dry erase board!

Israel was enslaved for 400 years in Egypt just as God told Abraham in Genesis 15:13.  [Side note: 400 = 40 (means a generation or a person's lifetime) x 10 (means completeness).  Therefore, 400 years of slavery represents a complete lifetime of slavery]  The Israelites were freed from sin and slavery when Moses guides the Israelites through the Red Sea.  It was in that same action, that the Egyptian armies pursued the Israelites into the Red Sea, only to be killed in the water.  The action reveals God's freeing action of the Israelites from sin and slavery.  The Israelites spend the next 40 years in the desert. [remember 40 years represent a generation or a person's lifetime] only to be led through another body of water, the Jordan river, into the promise land.

How does this relate to our lives?  Like the Israelites, we too were born into a complete sin and slavery, known as Original Sin.  We too, like the Israelites, are saved by passing through the waters, the waters of Baptism.  It's in this saving act, we are SENT on our journey toward the promise land, which is Heaven.  It's only after spending a lifetime of journeying toward the promise land, that we pass through another water, which death, that leads us to Heaven!  

But the comparison doesn't stop there. After sharing the foundation of Israel's story with the students, I continued to point out deeper! If we actually read Israel's story closer, we would see that the Israelites were attached to their life of sin and slavery.  They actually constantly doubted the Lord and wanted to turn back to Egypt.  [This is revealed in the creation of the Golden Calf, an Egyptian god, found in Exodus 32].   The Israelites would prefer going back to Egypt, which includes sin and slavery, than live a life that had them constantly trusting in The Lord's providence.  Take in mind, that this is still after the Israelites saw the power of God through the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of smoke in the day time, and the pillar of fire at night; the Israelites continued to complain to Moses:

"Would that we had died by the hand of The Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger" ~ Exodus 16:3

The fleshpots were believed to be huge stew-pots made up of swine meat.  To the Jews, these fleshpots were prohibited because swine were seen as unclean animals and should not be eaten. The Israelites, in a sense, would rather live a life of sin and slavery, than continue the difficult road of life trusting in the Lord in the desert. 

How true is that in our life!?!  Though we have been saved by the waters of Baptism, and in many cases have been sealed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation, we find ourselves desiring to go back to the slavery of sin.  Rather than trusting in the Lord's company and providence, we constantly desire to seek out pleasures that would draw us away from God.  G.K Chesterton hits this point right on the head, when he stated, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."  If we pursue our Christian life, and if we our truly honest with ourselves, we will admit having the same temptations likes the Israelites.  We would admit, like the Israelites, "we want our fleshpots!"  

So what is the answer or response to these temptations.  The answer is found in Israel's story once again!  The Lord feeds the Israelites with Manna, the Bread from Heaven.  For us as Christians as we journey through life, we too are given the Bread from Heaven.   Jesus Christ gives us Himself as food for our journey in the Eucharist.  By partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ, we are given the strength and grace to continue on the difficult road toward Heaven.  Let us not be discouraged by the difficulties found in the journey of life.  Let us turn away from the temptations of our various fleshpot desires.  And finally let us turn, all the more, to The Lord as the source of true food that will give us strength for the journey to our Eternal home!