We wonder, often, about our mission. What exactly is it that we were called to do, to be? Sister Wendy Beckett spoke of vocation, and said: ‘a vocation should be defined by the fact that you need it.’ What she means is that our calling is not just something conducive to us, but something we actually need in order to function as the selves God intended us to be.
It’s crucial to remember that the Gospel message can be brought into every situation, every life. The life path we choose will be very different to the next person’s, but what we share with other Christians is that openness to the Gospel in whatever we do and whatever we are.
The life path that Sister Wendy chose was specific, and it was an early calling. It is very much like ours here at Mount Saint Joseph Abbey. We have chosen a life of Christ. We have redacted everything else in order to concentrate on him. It is not for everyone. Someone else may be called to married life; they may sense it deeply, it may continue returning to suggest itself in different ways. And others will be called to any number of varied ways of life. What we all share is the Gospel. We should allow ourselves to be shaped by it, to be moulded into the people we can be in the wonderful light of grace. The Gospel message transcends what we are and what we do. It is our anchor, our reference point.
And so, in all things, in all moments, we must go out into the world and proclaim the good news. How will you do that, today?
GOSPEL (For Mission Sunday)
A reading from the Gospel according to John (17:11,17-23)
With me in them and they in me, may they be completely one that the world may realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.’
Jesus raised his his eyes to heaven and said:
I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world
and I am coming to you.
Consecrate them in the truth
your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world
I have sent them into the world
and for their sake I consecrate myself
so that they too may be consecrated in truth:
I pray not only for those
but also for those
who through their teaching will come to believe in me.
May they all be one,
Just as, Father, you are in me and I in you
so that they also may be in us,
so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
I have given them the glory you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me,
may they be so perfected in unity
that the world w ill recognise that it was you who sent me
and that you have loved them as you loved me.
The Gospel of the Lord