Is. 45:1, 4-6; Ps 96:1, 3-5, 7-10; 1 Thes. 1:1-5b; Mt. 22:15-21

My chosen one!  The Lord God calls us by name, giving us a title by which we have been chosen to lead of life for his God given purpose.  Our choice in life is to accept or reject his call and live out our mission defined by his title for us.  If we accept his call we will be armed with the grace to fulfill our mission whether we recognize his hand leading us in battle or not.  You were chosen for the gospel not only in word “but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.”  This drives our life and our destiny.  Let us live our calling. 

Jesus sends his disciples out by two to preach ahead of him to prepare the way that he may follow with the power of the word in action, healing, forgiving sins, and even raising the dead to life.  God’s chosen ones by living testimony in every act of love bring healing, forgiveness and new life to the spirit of the soul who hungers for truth, goodness, justice and unity.  The Jesus prayer to God the Father “that they may all be one” united as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit.  We are invited to enter into this covenant of love. 

The Lord says, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.”  Parents bring their children to baptism accepting the responsibility to prepare the way of the Lord as they grow and develop teaching them the way of faith, hope, and love that they may grow and come to Confirmation seeking the Lord in even a deeper relationship of love as God’s chosen ones.  We are chosen for the works of the Lord each according to the grace given in response to our readiness to seek the Lord.  Baptism is the beginning of what can be won or wasted by our free will.  

My chosen ones will “shine like lights in the world” of darkness.  It is God’s light that many will try to cover and reject as soon as it reveals the sins of the world.  This is the light Jesus brought into the world and the Pharisees went off and “plotted” against Jesus to silence him and have an argument to “cancel” him from society.  They put him to the test with the question of paying the census tax to Caesar.  Some may try to use this scripture story to argue the issues of separation of church and state.  This is a false notion of duplicity and Jesus would call us out as “hypocrites” if we fell into this reasoning.  God is greater than any social, political, economic structure the world can invent.  All is subject to his power and authority. 

Recalling Jesus words that we cannot serve “God and mammon”.   Mammon being the pursuit of material riches.  For many the heart is restless in the pursuit of the material world but nothing can truly satisfy its hunger.  The material is destined for the grave and if we are not prudent, we will be subject to the same destiny without the hope of heaven.  St. Augustine realized this in his early manhood as he turned away from the desires of the flesh and came to the conclusion that our hearts are restless until we rest in God himself.  Once he discovered this reality he entered into the kingdom of the chosen ones. 

To be chosen is an invitation for God desires all to be saved, but many fail to respond to the call.  Are we living by the title God has chosen to give us?  Have we given it a thought when we pray what is God’s will for me?”  It is easy to have our prayer be “God, please what I want” and not ask what do you desire of me and for me.  Perhaps we fear asking the question because it may carry a cross and not a comfort, a sacrifice and not a pleasure, a self-denial and not an indulgence.  Perhaps God is silent because we don’t really want to hear what he has to say to us.  My chosen ones, we cannot imagine what lies beyond but we trust that God will be faithful to his promises.  Today we are remined, there is a heaven and a hell, good and evil in the world, power to heal and the power to kill.  We must choose which path to follow.