The reading about the Apostles choosing someone to take the place of Judas is certainly pertinent to the daily lives of all of us. All over the globe we have elections: of a pope, of a prime minister, of members of parliaments and city councils. Employers are choosing this spring's graduates for jobs, sports managers are choosing players for positions on teams, young people are choosing marriage partners. In all of these cases, the goal is to select a person with the gifts to fit the position, the one who will contribute to the fulfillment of a mission. Making the choice really matters, and being chosen really matters. In my second grade class, the placing of a large manila envelope folded appropriately upon my head indicated that Sister Mary Thomas had chosen me as the student most likely to become a bishop. (Wrong: only one of the boys in my class entered the seminary, and he is now serving as a lay missionary in Peru; I'm married with two children.) And I was one of those kids who was always chosen last -- and usually reluctantly -- for the cub scout baseball team. Anyway, we all know what it is to be chosen or not chosen for something, and to choose this person instead of that one. In making our choices, we are playing God, as we ought to play
God now and then, or maybe fairly often. By that I mean that God
wills the very best for His created universe, and HIS choices are
not random or casual ones. They are the choices expressive of His
infinite wisdom and his infinite love. And so we -- as employers,
as teachers, as sports team managers, as family members or officers
in community groups, as choir or theater directors, or editors or
labor union members or farm owners or grocery store managers or
soldiers -- have choices to make about people. Some may be relatively
minor, some could be enormously important. Let that be our huge model even in our small choices that affect
people. Let us pray for wisdom, and then use that wisdom, and let
us choose with love, love for the person we choose, and for all
the people that person may affect. |