Jer 1:4-5, 17-19
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
But you, gird up your loins; stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not break down before them, or I will break you before them. And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land.
They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
How is God Calling You?
Before I graduated from high school people would ask me questions like if I thought I’d like to become a doctor like my dad (I didn’t), or where I wanted to go to college (someplace warm). I thought about being a lawyer or entering the Jesuits as my cousin had done, and a few other things I do not remember now. But the choice was mine about who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.
But in the first reading for today’s Mass, Jeremiah tells us that he believed that, before being born, God had chosen him to be a prophet to deliver God’s message to the people of Israel, a message they would resist. Jeremiah did not have to choose in what he would be or the reception he would receive. God did promise him, however, to stand with him and protect him in the face of opposition.
As you look at your own life, do you feel God has called you to be a certain type of person, destined you for a particular mission or destiny?
—Fr. Frank Majka, SJ, is a priest of the Midwest Province who lives at the Jesuit community at St. Camillus in Wauwatosa, WI.
Prayer
And these words — ‘You will not be overcome,’ were said very insistently and strongly, for certainty and strength against every tribulation which may come. He did not say ‘You will not be troubled, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted,’ but he said ‘You will not be overcome.’ God wants us to heed these words so that we shall always be strong in trust, both is sorrow and in joy.
—Julian of Norwich