Look Carefully at what God has called you to do

Look carefully at what God has called you to do

Too often, once we are ordained to our task, cleric or lay-ministry, we start to seek our neighbors position since we believe that our gifts are better than his.  Perhaps my talent fits the purpose that God handed me where no one else is called to accomplish.  

Sometimes tha abilities we seem to have are looked upon with favor by those who handed these attributes out on the day of distribution for the final result of a perfect kingdom.  You may never be elevated to be a bishop but be sent to a remote parish where there are poor people with little hope to be called God’s people.  John Vianney, a priest who was sent to a town with just 230 residents.  In his ministry the Cure of Ars became the confessor that most priests would love to be called into.  His ministry is well known to priests and he stands as saint who followed his assignment making it a pleasure to bring the forgiveness of Christ on the souls of his sheep.  People from all over France travelled to Ars for confession.  Ars became known as “the great hospital of souls.” 

A personal story of getting the lowest job as a KP (kitchen police) in the US Army.  When the jobs were handed out to those of us who, by our superiors, the cooks made the choice of tasks.  I happened to be the last of the few men who were to perform particular jobs.  By chance I ended up being the pot and pan scrubber.  I had worked in a country club before the Army and had a lot of experience in kitchen filth on cookware.  The cooks were so pleased with my attention to making the pans look like a plate you could eat off of.  The remaining times I was called to KP I knew my position would be to the kitchen sink and used my gifts of performing the willingness to do my job as if I had chosen it myself.  

There might be a letter from the bishop assigning a particular parish that everyone would say, “you don’t want to be sent to that parish.”  St. John Vianney could have echoed that mission himself, but that was not in his demeanor.      

In a world where there are untold numbers of poor people who are in need of someone to bring the good news to them, the opportunity falls upon many missionaries, clerics or lay-ministers, to find their task that Christ found through his Incarnation followed the call that God ordained.

Accepting a call that we may just denounce the bishop’s letter, or the last position off a list of tasks that appears at the bottom of choices, the final word we hear from God is, “Well done my child.”  

Never get ready to leave your assigned task since the Holy Spirit has given you and I the talent needed to be like the “Cure of Ars” and thank God that he trusted us more than others to do the lowest and filthiest assignment that only the best of souls are called to do.

Ralph B. Hathaway