Sixth Sunday of EASTER 2009

When I was a child growing up there were many football games in the school yard (and in the street until the police came along!). Two teams had to be selected. Usually, the best two players selected the teams picking one player after another. The dread of my life was to be the last one picked – and it did happen regularly. This really hurt. It meant that you were not rated very highly as a footballer.

There is consolation for anyone who has ever felt that they were chosen for something because there was nobody else left to choose. God in the Gospel today tells us that He chooses us and not us who choose Him. In God’s ‘team’ there are no last choices. Everyone is chosen by God because He wants them and will do anything to have them on His side. He picks you and me as a Firstborn daughter or son. With God there are no losers, only winners.

Once chosen by God the journey is only beginning as a member of His ‘team’. His ‘game plan’ is truly wonderful. The call is to love Him and love our neighbour as well. But God is a great ‘coach’ of the team on which we are chosen. We are not left to our own devices. No, God places into our hearts the Holy Spirit who leads us, guides and inspires us. The awesome task of being on God’ ‘team’ is only possible because of this pouring of the Holy Spirit as our wisdom and strength.

When the going gets tough, God carries us in His arms as a Mother cradles her child. We are, after all, children of God. For many of us to be described as a child would be less than a compliment. But in God’s family that is who we truly are. We are children of the loving Father who is leading us through life to the very gates of Heaven. We are in need of being able to put our hand into the hand of God and let Him lead us. You have to have childlike trust to do this. The knocks and hurts of life leave some of us a bit suspicious of others and perhaps slow to trust. But with God as our Leader and Guide there is nothing to fear but everything to gain by absolute trust.

In two weeks, on Pentecost Sunday, wonderful young people from our midst will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation here at St Joseph’s. Their teachers and guides have spent long hours preparing for this great event. Their families have supported them along the way. We went on retreat last January. Monsignor Fleischmann spent time with the candidates last Saturday morning. All of these lead us to the moment when the Holy Spirit will come into upon these young people in the Sacrament of Confirmation. They have chosen to be confirmed because God first chose them to be his children.

What a blessing this will be for them, their families and all of us. It is a reminder to us that no matter how old we are (or how young) we are all children of God chosen to be in His family. As we move on in life it would be a pity if we were to forget that this whole wonderful adventure began because from all eternity God has chosen us to walk this earth and one day to join Him in Heaven.

Aidan Troy (Aodahán, C.P.)