Third Sunday after Epiphany

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
22nd January 2017

Why Did God Make Me In Particular?
by Fr. M. Raymond O.C.S.O.

Creation tells you that you are "one sent by God". With perhaps greater force, conservation insists that you are one sent for a purpose. Without these two truths as foundation, you cannot build your life even on shifting sand. But it is not enough for you to be vibrantly conscious of the fact that you are "one sent by God", and sent for a purpose; you must also know precisely what that purpose is.

Astronomers demonstrate that you and your tiny Earth are all but lost in a corner of this ever expanding universe. Mathematically their proofs are unassailable. But the conclusion they draw from such figures and facts is utterly false. They would have you deem yourself and your Earth next to worthless. That conclusion, false though it be, can have a soul-destroying effect on you if you do not keep on reminding yourself that it was in this all but lost corner of the universe that God became man - and became man for you; that here everlasting life with God the all-holy was made possible by God - for you.

Then you can go on reminding yourself that it is here in this tiny corner that God keeps on creating you that you may, in your own specific manner, fulfil the special function the all-powerful Maker of this ever expanding universe had in mind when He said Fiat for your soul and for you.

To know that on this whirling bit of burnt out stardust you have a mission from Almighty God and for Almighty God, which no one else in the universe can discharge, is a challenge to the best that is in you. You, who but a few short years ago were absolutely nothing, are now throbbing with life that you may radiate the Eternal; you, who are considered by the powerful of Earth as completely negligible, are now on Earth by God's command and thanks to God's continued action that you might show forth some shadow of His greatness and make manifest in your own particular way that goodness which is the very essence of God. What a mission is yours!

That is the loving design of God (for you). And that design, drawn up in eternity, includes you who live in these days of jet planes. That eternal design is the plan of God for you. That is why the Holy Ghost inspired St. Paul to write: "In Him it was your lot to be called, singled out beforehand to suit His purpose", which is "to manifest His Glory" (Eph. 1:11). There is God's eternal purpose underlined: you are to manifest His Glory by living in Jesus Christ!

Taken from You, pp. 20-22.