Do you live as one who has been chosen, or do you live as if your daily experience is accidental? Do you consider yourself to have been chosen?
Today, we hear God the Father opening the heavens and saying of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The difference between knowing you are chosen and living life as if it is an accident makes all the difference. If you have been chosen, it means you have been singled out as fit for a purpose that only you can fulfill.
When I was serving as chaplain at Bishop Carroll, I often impressed upon my students the gravity of being chosen. I would tell them, “God has created you for such a purpose that if you don’t fulfill it, that purpose dies with you. No one can do it for you. No one else can accomplish what you have been set apart to do as one chosen by God the Father.”
This realization can feel like a heavy burden. Failure is a real possibility in life. However, if you live life as if it is accidental, you set yourself up for nothing but failure. If you believe you are just a happenstance – one among many who could have done anything someone else could do – then you carry no real responsibility. You might think, “If I fail, no big deal – someone else will do it.”
But consider this: the day you were conceived, God made you fit for a purpose. On that day, your name was spoken, and you burst into existence. In the same way God said, “Let there be light,” at the moment of your conception … you happened … you were called into existence. You happened at a specific time in history, to particular parents, in a unique culture, all for a purpose.
You are God’s beloved child. You are not an accident. You were spoken into existence because your existence changes the very fabric of reality.
Let’s think about that for a moment. If I have half a glass of water and add another half glass, I get a full glass. If I add just a drop of water to a half glass, there is still more water in the glass. If I add a drop of water to the ocean, the ocean becomes bigger.
Now imagine this: the creation of a human being is the only moment in which existence itself grows larger. According to the first law of thermodynamics, everything created stays in stasis; energy changes form, but nothing grows – except the human soul. When you were created, existence became bigger. Your creation changed the size of all that exists.
More than that, you were called by name into existence. This was a personal act by God, who designed you to be fit for a purpose that only you can fulfill. The positive way of saying that is that you are eternally relevant. The negative way of saying that is that if you fail to fulfill your purpose, no one can take your place.
Do you live as though you have been chosen?
Do you live as one fit for a purpose?
Recently, I watched the college quarterfinals. One player made a great run at the end, and everyone praised him for “getting the ball.” Do you know that you’ve “got the ball,” so to speak? You are not an accident. Your place, your time, your person, and your name were designed. Because you are chosen, you must live into that reality.
In preparing couples for marriage, I emphasize the significance of the vows. At first glance, they seem almost rude: “I take you to be my spouse.” It sounds primitive, like grabbing someone and dragging them along. But think about it. When a bride and groom stand together, the husband says, “I take you to be my wife,” and the bride says, “I take you to be my husband.” But when you really think about it, these words are not rude at all – they speak to an intentional act whereby one person is chosen by another. In those vows, each person declares, “Among all possible persons, I choose you to the exclusion of all others.” It is a statement of exclusivity: “My eyes for no one else. My heart for no one else. My mind for no one else. I take you.” In this exchange, there is clarity: you are chosen.
As a priest, I knew I was chosen when, after nine years of seminary, the Bishop laid his hands on my head. Until that moment, I might have doubted. But in that act, I was chosen. A priest is made a priest not by his own will but by the Church’s choice. This choice cannot be undone.
And to all of you … young or old, priest or married, religious or single, do you consider that the day of your baptism was the day God chose you? Baptism is not an accident. It is not just a ritual or an act by your parents. It is God’s act, declaring, “I take you to be my beloved child.” Do you consider that your baptism was a missional moment, a call to action and purpose.
To those who are single, do you know you are chosen? Or do you see your singleness as an accident, or worse, as an act of a mean God withholding your desires? Or do you consider your singleness a missional act? Singleness, while transitional, is not accidental but intentional.
In the Church, a single person is like a totipotent cell – a cell that can become anything. In stem cell research, there are totipotent or pluripotent cells. Whereas a totipotent cell can become any organ in the human body – an eye or a toe; a pluripotent cell is more limited or able to become muscle versus a bone. Single persons are like totipotent cells – they can become anything the Church needs to fulfill its mission in the world. On the other hand, married couples or priests, whose vocations have boundaries, like pluripotent cells, are more limited by the definition of their vocation. I consider the single state in life to be the “Swiss army knife” of vocations. A single person’s mission is to respond to the needs of the Church in a way that only a single person can accomplish. Single persons have a vast breadth of possibilities to respond to the needs of the Church in unique ways, not least of which is being a true missionary to a third world country.
The question today is this: Do you live everyday as though you are chosen? You are chosen, as you are, where you are, and who you are. None of it is accidental. You must choose today to be the son or daughter of God you have been created to be. God called you by name, baptized you into His family, and set you apart for a purpose. Hear for yourself what God said of Jesus Christ: “You are my beloved child; in you, I am well pleased.”
Father Jarrod Lies, Pastor