“God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission... He has not created me for naught.” (Saint John Henry Newman).
I truly love Saint John the Baptist.
In so many things he reminds me of the Blessed Virgin. He was a mirror of God.
The Blessed Virgin declared in the Magnificat that Her Soul Rejoiced in the Lord…
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” (Luke 1:46-55).
So too did Saint John declare to his disciples, “He (Christ) must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)…
“They came to John, and said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here He is, baptising, and all are going to Him.’ John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:22-30).
It is almost shocking to me in a culture that is fixated with wins and gains and victory and self-promotion, that such human beings could exist where they focused solely on the benefits that God have given to them. They understood how little we humans are – they who were the best of humans…
Saint John Henry Newman explained, “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission... He has not created me for naught.”
And just as the Blessed Virgin and Saint John the Baptist understood that God would call us as He needed us, so too should I… I should know that no matter the trials – the flies and the heat of the desert that Saint John lived in, or the mundane domestic chores that the Blessed Virgin completed – no matter all the ordinary, there is some specific and extraordinary purpose for my life. And the ONLY way to find it is to listen to God’s calling for me… And as Thomas Merton said, “Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfil the original selfhood given me at birth by God…”
And today, I pray for the Grace to realise what that is…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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