God's Choices

In the Scripture readings for today’s liturgy, two men are chosen by God.  Saul is chosen to be the first king of Israel.  Levi is called by Jesus to be one of his disciples.  In both instances, neither man was seeking the role to which God called him.  Once again we are confronted with the fact that God’s chooses, not the other way around. 

In the reading from the First Book of Samuel, we are told that no other child in Israel was as handsome as Saul.  I am sure that the general consensus would have been that Saul was destined for greatness.  So when Samuel anoints him, we aren’t all that surprised.  One could even say that it was expected.

On the other hand, Levi was not highly esteemed.  He was regarded as a sinner because he was collaborating with the occupying force of Rome in his role as a toll collector at a customs booth.  That he should be chosen by Jesus to be one of the disciples is completely unexpected.

What is even more expected is that Levi, identified as Matthew in the Gospel that bears his name, goes on to be remembered and revered for his role as apostle and evangelist, while Saul is eventually rejected as the King of Israel and dies a shameful death.

There is no explaining God’s choices.  We have come to realize that God’s choices make it very clear that it is God who is acting through his choices.  When we cooperate with God’s grace, nothing is impossible.  However, failure to cooperate makes failure inevitable. 

No one would have expected God to give us Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, as a sacrifice for our sins.  Yet every day we are presented with the same gift over and over again.  Jesus remains among us not because of our choices but because of God’s.  We can only be grateful for such a gratuitously free gift.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator