21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – St. Eugenia
Isaiah 22:19–23, Romans 11:33–36, Matthew 16:13–20
Elections matter. When people vote, they make decisions that can shape the future of a community, a country, even a whole nation. But today’s Gospel reminds us of another election that is even more important: God’s choice of us.
God has chosen us.
That may sound strange. We often think of our faith as something we have chosen: I decided to become a Christian. I decided to come to Mass. I decided to believe. And, of course, our decisions matter. But before we ever chose God, God chose us.
This is one of the great themes of the Bible. God chooses Abraham, Moses, David, Mary, Peter and the other apostles. And ultimately God chooses Jesus Christ and sends him into the world for our salvation.
God’s choice does not mean that he loves some people and rejects others. God loves every human being. But he does not give everyone the same vocation. He calls each person in a particular way and gives each of us a particular place in the life of his Church.
That is important for us to remember. Sometimes we can become jealous of the gifts, vocation or role that God has given to someone else. Why him? Why her? Why does that person have that responsibility, that talent, that position? Why am I not like that?
But the Christian question is not: Why has God chosen someone else? The Christian question is: What is God asking of me?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to Simon: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” Peter is chosen for a particular task. He is given a responsibility that is not given to the other apostles in the same way. And yet Peter is not chosen because he is perfect. He will make mistakes. He will even deny Jesus.
This is important to have in mind. God’s election is not a reward for being perfect. It is a call to serve. Peter’s vocation becomes a service to the whole Church. And this service continues in the Church through the Petrine ministry, through the successors of Peter.
For us Catholics, this has a very concrete importance. Here in Sweden, we are a small minority. There are perhaps 250,000 Catholics in Sweden. Sometimes we can feel rather small and isolated. We may even think of the Catholic Church as simply our parish, or the Catholics we know personally.
But that is not who we are. When we come to Mass here at St. Eugenia, we are part of something much greater. We belong to a Church that embraces around 1.4 billion Catholics throughout the world. We are united with Catholics in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America and Oceania.
And we are not simply a collection of local communities. We belong to one Church, united in the same faith, the same sacraments and the same apostolic tradition. That is why our communion with Rome matters so much. The connection with the successor of Peter is not merely an administrative connection. It is a sign and an instrument of our unity. The Pope, as the successor of Peter, has a particular responsibility to preserve the Church in the faith received from the apostles and to strengthen his brothers and sisters in that faith.
We can sometimes have very different opinions about popes. We may like some more than others. We may agree with them on some things and disagree on others. That is nothing new in the history of the Church. But something deeper remains: the Church is not ours. The faith is not ours to reinvent.
We have received something. We have received the faith of the apostles, handed down through the centuries. And the Petrine ministry is one of the visible guarantees of our communion with that apostolic Church.
For a small Catholic community in Sweden, this is especially precious. We are not an isolated religious group trying to preserve an old tradition. We are members of the universal Church, rooted in the faith of Peter and the apostles and united with Catholics throughout the world.
And yet there is something even more personal here. God has chosen you. Not only the Pope. Not only bishops and priests. Not only missionaries or religious. In baptism, God called every one of us by name. Each of us has a place in the Church. Each of us has something to give.
Perhaps your vocation is a family. Perhaps it is your work. Perhaps it is caring for someone who needs you. Perhaps it is serving in the parish, teaching children, singing in the choir, welcoming newcomers, visiting someone who is lonely, or simply being a faithful Christian in an environment where the faith is not always understood.
Most of these things will never make the headlines. But they matter to God. We do not have to compare ourselves with other people. We do not have to ask whether our vocation is more important or less important than somebody else’’.
The question is simply: Lord, what have you chosen me for? And then: What do you want me to do with the life you have given me?
St Paul gives us the right attitude when he says: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!” We will never completely understand why God calls one person to this and another person to that. But we can trust him.
God does not choose us because we are already perfect. He chooses us so that, with his grace, we may become what he has called us to be. So perhaps today we should leave Mass with one simple prayer:
Lord, you have chosen me.
You have given me a place in your Church.
Show me what you want of me.
Help me to be faithful to the vocation you have given me.
And help me to rejoice in the vocation you have given to others.
Because the important question is not: Why did God choose him or her? The important question is: Why has God chosen me—and what will I do with that choice?
Fr. Dominik Terstriep S.J.
