The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I don’t have any cute anecdotes to start this reflection, but what I do have is a sense of urgency to allow the Holy Spirit to invade our hearts and for us to experience our own personal Pentecost. I have a sense of urgency for us to awaken to the realization that not only are we incredibly loved, necessary, and wanted in this world, but that we are chosen.
Each person. Specially chosen for now. For a reason.
There’s a reason why you live now in 2021 and not five hundred years ago, or even one thousand years ago. God in His infinite goodness created you for now, in this specific moment in time. It specifically says this in the second reading today, “we are God’s children now.” Not a slave, part-time friend, or distant cousin. There’s also no checklist or add-ons. He calls us his children. And as a good Father acts, He shepherds us.
He shows us the way to go. He gives us rules and boundaries because He knows we’ll die without them. Most of us view God as a strict disciplinarian who is void of love, compassion, and mercy. He is a judge in the sky waiting for us to mess up so He can wipe us out. When in reality, He is a good Father who adores His children.
God is the Good Shepherd.
How many of us trust that God is actually good? That we live our lives in such a way that speaks to our trust in Him? In His providence? In His protection? In His mercy and love for us?
My prayer for you is that you come to this deep realization that you are incredibly loved, as well as the realization that the Lord wants to give you more of His life in you, to be filled with the Holy Spirit so to go into the world to proclaim this Good News.
You are chosen for now.