Are you sometimes indifferent? How do you look at people and judge them? - Daily Reflections September 9,2014

GOD’S STRANGE CHOICES

 

When I take up the story of Esau and Jacob in my Old Testament class, my students often become puzzled and begin to discuss intensely God’s strange choice. Why did God choose Jacob over his older brother Esau?

       Then I ask my students: “Let’s go for a moment to the New Testament.

Would you have chosen the Apostles Jesus chose?”

         Silence first. And then all say, “No.”

       We read today how Jesus chose His closest friends and coworkers, the representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and foundations of the new Israel. He did so after praying a whole night. But, as it turned out, one would betray Him, another would deny Him, not just once but three times, and James and John were very ambitious.

       What kind of choice was this? And that after a night of prayer! Yes, God’s choice is often puzzling. But looking at the Apostles, except Judas, all other Apostles became powerful missionaries. All of the eleven, except John, gave their lives for Christ and for their faith. Our Church is based on these Apostles, a foundation that made the Church last through two thousand years of persecution, turmoil, inner strife and attacks from the outside. Jesus’ choice was correct, after all, as was God’s choice of Jacob who became the father of the people of Israel.

       God does not look at how a person is at that moment. He looks at a person and his hidden potentials. He looks at how he would develop under His guidance and with His grace. If only we could look at persons that way!

       There is only one kind of people that God cannot and will not choose — the indifferent. In the Book of Revelation, the Risen Lord tells the people in Laodicea how He wished they were hot or cold. But because they are lukewarm, He says, “I spit you out of my mouth.”

       There are two messages for us while reading the list of the Apostles. First, see the potentials of each person and don’t judge him according to what you see now. And second, don’t be indifferent. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Are you sometimes indifferent? How do you look at people and judge them?

 

Lord, too often I judge a person according to what I see in him right now. Let me learn from You and see his potentials. Let me see the future saint in the present sinner.