God is always choosing people…

Think of the many, many stories about God choosing people. There’s Moses, Abraham and Sarah; there is David, Jeremiah, Gideon, Samuel, Jonah and Isaiah. There is Israel itself. Much later there’s Peter and Paul, and, most especially Mary.

God is always choosing people. First impressions aside, God is not primarily choosing them for a role or a task, although it might appear that way. God is really choosing them to be God’s self in this world, each in a unique situation.  If they allow themselves to experience being chosen, being a beloved, being somehow God’s presence in the world, they invariably communicate that same chosenness to others.  And thus the Mystery passes on from age to age.

Richard Rohr, adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, pp. 42–43

I don’t know about you, but for me, the problem is in believing that God would call someone like me. I long for him, long to walk closely with him, long to love with his love and breathe with his Spirit—but so often I miss it, miss his call, because I can’t believe that I could be his self in the world, despite his promises (John 17:20-26) to us all. But we are all called to pass on the Mystery. That’s the meaning of evangelism—passing on the mysterious Good News of Christ’s coming among us, of the opening of the door to unquenchable life. It happens not because of what we say—though that may at times be a vehicle for it—but because of who we let Christ be in us, and whom we let him love in and through, us.