In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” The story Jesus provides is one that helps us to reflect on many levels. One level is salvation itself. “The many” here refers to all of mankind, “the few” refers to those who are saved. We don’t like this passage because Jesus is holding us accountable, just as we did not like it when teachers, parents, coaches, mentors, the next door neighbor held us accountable. But can it be true that only a few will be saved? I say we leave that to the Lord to sort out and that we just continue to desire and pray that the all who are invited will also be the all that are chosen.
Another level this passage works on is not just in the grand scheme of who will or will not be saved, but also of opportunities that God invites us to all the time, each and every day, opportunities that are grace filled, that allow our relationship with him and others to grow. These opportunities come in many shapes and sizes, they can be direct opportunities in which we have spiritual fellowship with another person, i.e. prayer, reading and discussing Scripture. It can come for the student in a class room or parents with their children. God is constantly inviting us to accept the road in front of us, to work things out, with the many gifts he provides.
I wish to flesh out a couple of examples, everyday ones in which we can see God’s hand, sometimes acting on it, other times becoming the person who is invited but not chosen, or one in which I am invited to act Godly in a certain circumstance but do not.
Parents are always invited by God to raise their children in a Godly fashion, teaching them justice, mercy, prayer, and a love for the virtues. Often times parents will do the right thing, however, sometimes they will not. As a parent how would you deal with the following? You have a son who is on the debate club, the mentor or coach of this club is especially hard on your son, at least that is the perception you have from how your son describes his coach-mentor. You can do two things, one – intercede for your son by sitting down with the coach and interjecting your professional opinion on how the coach needs to tone it down, if not you will issue an ultimatum. Another way to approach it is to allow your son to talk with the coach himself, allowing your son to experience adversity, even loss so as to learn about life, to begin to grow while you yourself remain encouraging, supportive, and loving. God provides these difficult moments to help mold and shape us, but sometimes parents jump off the deep end in protecting their children. They will remove them from difficult situations in order to avoid pain, but sometimes pain is good. What will happen when they are 26 years old and are reamed out by their boss or he or she is making life very difficult for them. You can longer interject and they will still rely on you to get them out of trouble. Sometimes grace is given not to run away but to work through it. On rare occasions grace is given to walk away since all possible means of reconciliation between student – teacher, coach or for adults with a supervisor have been exhausted and it would be unhealthy to remain in that situation. You can clearly see how in each case God invites us to live Godly – to choose wisely.
As a priest I am often presented or in situations with other Christians who have various understandings of theology and Church. I hate to use these words, but some are more liberal than me, while others are more conservative than me. In my own selfishness I sometimes think that it is my way that is “the way,” of properly understanding the Church and theology. Often times the Good Lord will send people my way who differ in thought and understating than I do. A majority of the times, say 60%, I do remain open, listen, reflect, and learn. And about 40% of the time I dismiss others as too conservative or too liberal, because you see, me and God don’t agree with them. I guess it’s just the pride in me. I thank God that I recognize this, though I don’t always catch it. In these moments God is asking me to listen, but more importantly to continue to love others and remember that the boundaries in the Church are pretty wide. Sometimes we pigeonhole people into camps. I wonder what Jesus is thinking when he sees us doing this kind of thing.
Jesus was trying to get the people of his time and of all time to see God’s hand working in everyone and in every situation. God is constantly inviting us, not just to eternal life, but to every day circumstances that can be Godly. My friends we have been invited, therefore we must respond, because when we do we are not just invited, but chosen. AMEN
Fr. John
picture from http://spiritlessons.com/Documents/Jesus_Pictures/Jesus_Christ_Pictures.htm
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