Put blessings and challenges at the service of others: Daily Mass Homily--Monday, June 10th, 2013

           Today is an important day in my life as it marks my second anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate.  Truth be told, I was much more nervous for this ordination than for priesthood because it was when I promised to live out the call to celibacy.

            I remember several years in my life, especially in seminary, focusing a lot of time and energy thinking, praying and asking about God’s call in my life.  Where was He calling me?  What would make me the happiest?  Many college students I’ve worked with have similar concerns and can obsess on God’s call.

            Yet I learned that vocation isn’t so much about me, but about others.  God has given me (and each of us), gifts and talents, not for ourselves, but to put at the service of others.  This is precisely what St. Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God…If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.”

            God gives us good and allows us to experience evil in our lives.  None of this is to be kept to ourselves and wasted.  If we are suffering, we must do so for others.  If we are joyful, we must share this joy with our neighbor. 

No matter what vocation we are in, God asks us to allow our experiences—both good and bad—to serve God and each other.