Nativity Catholic Church
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A Call Not Sought... But Accepted
A "FIRESTARTER" Spiritual Essay by Rev.
Dr. Benjamin
Berinti, C.Pp.S.
I am almost certain that when Jesus was making his way along the seashore and roped a few fishermen into following him (or should I say, more appropriately, “cast a net toward”), it was a “call,” an invitation they had not been actively seeking. In this sense, they were no different from most of the great and small figures God has gathered to proclaim the Word of the Lord throughout salvation history. Take your pick: Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah—and countless others, have labored for God by ultimately accepting a call they did not seek. While we all have many pursuits in our lives, some of which are seeking to serve the Lord, perhaps the most challenging ministry to which we are invited is not the one we actively seek, but rather the one we have thrust upon us, and eventually come to accept—or at least, try to do so. Unbeknown to most of us, there are many members of our Nativity parish community who are serving in a blessed but painful call to ministry far from our sight. They do not approach the altar each week to minister the Eucharist, nor do they proclaim the Word of God from the ambo, nor do they serve at the table of the Lord, nor do they greet worshippers at the doorway. We don’t see them in our classrooms or bible studies; we don’t bump into them at the Sharing Center, or on a build for Habitat, or leading a scouting troop or sports team. Yet, while we do not see them in these ministries, they are no less sharing the broken body of the Lord, testifying to the shedding of his blood, proclaiming a living Word for our times, and drawing around the intimacy of God’s table with a feeding and nurturing hand and heart. Their ministry, the call that they are striving to accept and carry out with dignity, faithfulness and love—is the ministry to a sick and dying parent, spouse, child, or loved one. Each and every time I am welcomed to a home or nursing facility where someone is gravely ill, I am moved beyond words at what I see and experience. There, with all the eloquence of the most gifted writer and spiritual master, is the heart and soul of Christ’s command to offer self-sacrificing love. No papal letter on the subject, no spiritual manifesto, no homily, no guilt-laden demand from well-intentioned leaders, comes remotely close to this quiet, out-of-sight, and deeply personal struggle in faith to respond to God’s unexpected and unsought-after “call” to tend the needs of a loved one in the final stages of his or her earthly life. There are members of our community, Ministers to the Sick, who experience the grace of meeting and sharing in the struggle of faith this kind of service calls forth from the family member who certainly did not seek this challenge in their life. But for most of this parish community, since most likely we will rarely meet these disciples face to face, perhaps all we can offer our sisters and brothers who labor to accept God’s call, is our prayerful support. So much ministry in the name of Jesus, especially ministry that requires entering deeply into another’s pain, suffering, and death, is carried out beyond the eyes of the parish community. These good and faithful disciples, trying to accept a call they did not seek, are not concerned about the liturgical squabbles that permeate some people’s agendas; they are not standing on a soap box stumping for their pet project in the church, or announcing what the Pope should and shouldn’t be doing; they aren’t grabbing headlines or lambasting others in the church for their shortcomings. No, they are simply, reverently doing the work of Jesus, serving as a Cyrenean in helping bear the cross of a loved one in pain, and trying to understand how this “call” they have not sought, but have received, fits into the grand schema of God’s plans. To all those who are responding to this most challenging ministry from God, know that “out-of-sight” doesn’t mean “out-of-mind.” Someone in your church is praying for you and seeking God’s strength for you to answer your “call.”
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