15th Week in OT 2019 - Wednesday - Who am I?

"Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

I think every saint in history has asked that question, in all humility, “who am I?”

I think of St. Francis Xavier: “Who am I to travel to Japan, to India, to the headhunters and cannibals, to preach the Gospel?”

Or Mother Cabrini: “Who am I to leave my native Italy to come to the New World to work with the poor immigrants?”

Or St. Catherine of Sienna: “Who am I to correct the Pope who had abandoned Rome to live in the papal palace at Avignon?”

Or St. Francis of Assisi: “Who am I to rebuild the Church through radical poverty?”

Or St. John Paul II: “Who am I to condemn the communists who bring atheism and ruin to my native land?”

Or St. Maximillian Kolbe: “Who am I to take the place of one condemned to die?”

The saints no doubt each had their own “burning bush moment” where they heard the Lord calling them to something great: to something difficult, to something scary and our of their comfort zone, something requiring the radical trust of a child, as directed by Our Lord in the Gospel.

The Lord contrasts the Wise and the Learned of the World with the Childlike. The Wise and the Learned claim to know what’s best in life, how to succeed, how to get ahead, how to become powerful. But the Lord calls his disciples to become childlike, to approach the burning bush with fascination, wonder, curiosity, openness, and radical trust.

The Lord calls each of us, too, to lives of radical holiness that requires radical trust. For most of us, our vocation in life is set, but within that vocation, within marriage or priesthood or the single life, are opportunities to serve the Lord, to allow ourselves to be sent into the unknown.

And when we do, when we trust, when we follow where the Lord leads, there may be some suffering, but we allow Christ to work within us, we become instruments of God’s providence unfolding in history, we become heirs to great treasure in heaven, we discover the great destiny for which we were created, we join the company of the saints, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians may respond generously and courageously to the divine call to holiness.

That young people may be hear God’s call to priesthood and consecrated religious life, to turn away from the empty promises of the world to follow the Lord in holiness.

That those engaged in missionary work will be preserved from evil and reach the most hardened of hearts.

For the sick, suffering, and sorrowful, for miracles for hopeless causes.

For the souls in purgatory, and for N. for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.