<html><body><div>Part 2</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"> Sometimes we can crush both others and ourselves by our blinkered view of God and the world, and by a lack of willingness to see that God calls everyone to engage in an incredibly diverse number of ministries, all in the name of love. And, if, indeed, we do change our vocations several times throughout the course of our lives, that doesn’t deny in the least that the first, second or third vocational engagement was not valid <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>OR</u></b> a response to what God may have felt was needed at any particular time. </font><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Sometimes the call to ministry comes suddenly, out of the blue. It may be something large, it may be something small. It may take great effort, it may be comparatively easy. But, always, in involves one-hundred-per-cent dedication and commitment. And there are times when we may be on the receiving end of ministry – and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT</u></b> is a vocation also, to allow someone else to engage through God’s love.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>What would you do today, this morning, if you were homeless and didn’t have anywhere to sleep out of the rain and wind?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>What would you do, if, in addition to that, you have some degree of health problems?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>What would you do if, on top of that, you needed some of those things of which we spoke as we renewed our baptismal promises – like affording to everyone a sense of dignity and compassion?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Follow me,” said Jesus, first to Philip, then to Nathanael, Philip’s friend, who was sitting under a fig tree.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“I’ll show you where you can get a shower; or a hot meal; or some clothing to keep you warm.” Is that what Jesus said? </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Well, no, just the invitation to follow Him, with, perhaps, the remotest implication that there might be some sort of a job, some sort of assistance, some sort of security on the horizon. But the strange thing is that there were no guarantees offered, simply an invitation to try something different, to take chances and, quite frankly, if someone told me I’d “see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”, I might be inclined to back off a bit.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But think where you and I may have heard before about a situation like that. Jacob, does he come to mind? Jacob, dreaming, resting his head on a large rock with nothing but his cloak over him at night, yet able to take in the dream he had about angels going up and down, on a ladder, something, moving between where God is and where human beings are. Jacob, detecting some sort of a bridge which connected everything together and allowed God’s word and hopes to become apparent.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Was this what Jesus – or the Gospel writer – was wanting us to remember? Isn’t this what Jesus personifies to us, that He is the bridge which will provide the means for us to recognise that we’re in God’s company and can find peace, and hope, and help in that.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>So, then, what would you and I do, with that knowledge about Jesus and God’s love; what would you and I do for the person who may be afraid to talk to us, or to ask for what really is troubling them? What will you and I do with the knowledge of God’s presence and the invitation to walk with God on earth? What will we do that’s practical, that’s helpful, that’s encouraging and healing to all God’s people?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Samuel, Philip, Nathaniel – none of them were vetted. They were simply called, and, as a writer put it, they and millions of others found a depth of love within themselves to which they didn’t know they had access. They discovered a profound trust in what God might want to have accomplished through them. <sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We all have the capacity to love, if we’ll accept it and go with it. Or we can reject. The choice is always up to us how we’ll hear, what we’ll say, how we’ll respond. Not a single one of us will be left out of the invitation to ministry in all its extravagant forms.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Of course, we still have to listen, to try to determine who’s talking to us, and why. But here’s one thing to consider while we listen, all the time, wherever we are.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Jesus himself was from a (run-down, unrespectable, dirty) place. Nazareth was a minuscule town of 200 to 400 people, where people lived in small stone houses, and, say archaeologists, garbage … was dumped in the alleyways. ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ says Nathanael when he hears where the Messiah is from.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“God, in other words, came from a (terrible) place. And he pointedly asked us to welcome him whenever he appeared as a ‘stranger,’ or as one of our ‘least’ brothers and sisters. That's why we have all these people come. Because Jesus came.” <sup>2</sup> And because Jesus still calls us to ministry, in a million different ways, and to million upon millions of people.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>As an acquaintance wrote, ““There’s so much you can be in your future, once you figure out it has nothing to do with your past.”<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><sup>3</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NOTES:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 5pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“The Five Invitations: Discovering what death can teach us about living fully”</i> by Frank Ostaseski. Flatiron Books, New York, N.Y. © 2017. </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Eurostile","sans-serif"; font-size: 5pt;'> </span></p><h3 style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;'>2</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;'> <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Why we should welcome people from countries Trump just insulted</i>” by Fr. James Martin in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">“America”</i> </span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 117, 66); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/01/...</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>and on Facebook: </span><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(63, 63, 63); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;'><a href="https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrgEY_UVlpab0kADCYPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByM3V1YTVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMzBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1515898708/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.facebook.com%2fFrJamesMartin%2fposts%2f10155023717926496/RK=2/RS=uCRUxp8CA4xJvs_wywUgLENwWhY-" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font color="#0000ff">Fr. James Martin, SJ - facebook.com</font></span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 117, 66); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;'><a href="http://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/posts/"><font color="#0000ff">www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/posts/</font></a>..</span></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Eurostile","sans-serif"; font-size: 5pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Past Due – Story of the Day</i>” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“StoryPeople</i>”, 9<sup>th</sup> January, 2018 by Brian Andreas.</span></p></div><div><b><br></b></div></body></html>