God Chooses

Homily for Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s first reading from the Book of Genesis recounts the final days of Abraham and his wife Sarah. Before Abraham dies, he enlists the help of his chief steward to find a wife for Isaac among Abraham’s family. The reading that we have today is really a condensation of two chapters of the Book of Genesis. The part that is left out of this story in the Lectionary for Daily Mass reveals that Abraham’s steward turns the duty or task of finding a wife over to God. This man realized that the choice of a fitting wife for Isaac had to be entrusted to the same God that asked Abraham to migrate from his homeland. He refused to rely upon his own judgment because he realized that Abraham’s legacy would be determined by the choice of Isaac’s wife. Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, would have two sons, Esau and Jacob.

In one respect, the story of God’s choice of Rebecca is similar to the call of Matthew which we hear in today’s Gospel passage. It goes without saying that Jesus’s choice of Matthew would have raised some eyebrows. This was not a man people looked up to. They may have feared him and likely hated him. As a tax collector, Matthew would have been regarded as unworthy of this call. This is, perhaps, the very reason for Jesus’s choice. If Jesus chose Matthew, no one can make the claim that they are not worthy of a call to follow Jesus. Worthiness is not the quality for which Jesus is looking. Rather, Jesus is looking for faith.

God’s call of Rebecca to be the wife of Isaac and the call of Matthew to be an apostle is a reminder to all of us that God is the one who makes the choices. As St. John wrote in his Gospel, “You have not chosen me, I have chosen you.”

As we reflect upon our given vocation, we can be sure that God’s reason for choosing us has nothing to do with our worthiness or our talents. Instead, God’s choice is part and parcel of the mystery that the Gospel continues to reveal to us.