Breath of the Spirit Reflection: Called to Relationship

January 13, 2021

by

Gregory McCollum

<p><em>Breath of the Spirit is our electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.</em></p><p><strong>January 17th 2021: Second Sunday of Ordinary Time</strong></p><p><span>1 Samuel 3:3b-10 19</span><br><span>Psalm 40:2 4 7-8 8-9 10</span><br><span>1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a 17-20</span><br><span>John 1:35-42</span></p><p><strong>Reflection from&nbsp;<strong>Jeff Vomund</strong></strong></p><p>At times I feel awkward when someone tells me that God has called them to do something. Its not that I doubt Love calls to us but when someone simply declares such a calling it can be a conversation stopper. After all if the Almighty has contacted someone personally with a job description what are we mere mortals to say? Also crystal clear callings have a mixed track record. Mother Teresa famously felt called by God in 1946 to minister to the poor and dying but it seems Torquemada felt the Divine call to torture and kill heretics in service of doctrinal purity during the Spanish Inquisition. Given the evangelical nature of his political base I suspect some of our fellow citizens who desecrated the Capitol last week felt called by God to support President Trumps claims of a stolen election. Not to mention then-Cardinal Ratzinger ended his 1986 letter On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons citing Gods call that the Church minister to every man woman and child with the pastoral solicitude of our compassionate Lord (18) as he kicked all but the most docile LGBTQ+ groups off Catholic property.</p><p>The trouble with the future popes (and others) calling to minister through eviction and violence is not that it is cynical but I assume sincere. As humans we have a deeply rooted capacity to blame God for what we want. I doubt the future pope was exempt from that temptation I certainly am not. Our Scriptures however do not depict the divine calling in such quid pro quo terms. As if a call happens when God says Jump! and true disciples respond How high?. Gods persistent calling to Samuel in Sundays first reading was only to listen and it seems to keep living with and learning from Eli. When Jesus calls Andrew and another disciple in the gospel the invitation is only Come and you will see. No big jobs no herculean tasks. Just listen and look around.</p><p>In the Scriptures Gods call is always first and foremost an invitation to relationship which is to say intimacy and vulnerability. Even the famous biblical calls - for Moses to set Gods people free for Abram to be the founder of Gods people for Jeremiah Isaiah and others to prophecy were grounded in regular intimate and vulnerable conversations. Insofar as we can tell God called Ruth to discipleship primarily through the loving friendship of her mother-in-law Naomi. We see the pattern for that in todays psalm. The Psalmist notes that they wait upon God listening for the sacred conversation which dwells within their heart. Only at the end of the psalm after waiting listening and treasuring Gods loving presence does the Psalmist mention announcing Gods justice to others. Similarly only after years of being with Jesus day in and day out do we hear that the disciples experience the Spirits call to preach.</p><p>Its not that Loves call cannot knock us off our horse or appear as a burning bush; however even these calls did not produce any public action without significant Divine-human and human-to-human conversations. Paul addresses this critical human-to-human dynamic in todays passage from his First Letter to the Corinthians. He is chastising the Corinthians for their overly permissive approach to sexuality but he does so by invoking their responsibility to their own bodies and to the Body of Christ. Paul grounds our moral calling in our responsibility to ourselves and to each other.</p><p>From the mix of meditation and rationalization that can serve up some of our clearest callings our actual relationships must provide a much-needed check on our zeal. How might a particular call affect my partner? His happiness is certainly a part of my role in the Body of Christ I cannot just push it aside when it is inconvenient. How could any callings that I perceive impact my family friends co-workers and neighbors? Paul is clear that our callings must not harm the Body of which we are members. We are required to discern our callings by grounding them in vulnerable intimate conversations with each other. This necessarily changes our perspective. I cant know what people need unless I know their perspectives. This is what the hierarchy misses when it ministers to the LGBTGQ+ community without first talking to us. It is the mistake politicians make when they fight more for their vision of our country than the people in our country. It is also the mistake we who our society has privileged by our whiteness and/or maleness make when we tell those who have been historically minoritized what they should be doing when we have not first heard how they have been doing. And it is the mistake that I make when I am so full of some great new idea or goal that I am called to accomplish that I do not consider how this new change could affect the people in the world for whom I have already been called to care.</p><p>When we discern our callings from within the Body of Christ as opposed to something we do for or to the Body (In plain language: when we have authentic intimate conversations about our plans with our loved ones) it requires courage a lot more courage than simply declaring we have found a new mountain to climb or an election to overturn. Those discussions about our callings can feel awkward as well: not because they stop conversation but because they invite us into a new and deeper level of it.</p><p>__</p>[caption align=left]<img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/jeff.png'>[/caption]<p></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: transparent; font-size: 13.008px;><strong><br>Jeff Vomund&nbsp;</strong>is a member of Dignity/Washington and currently lives in ArlingtonVA. After 15+ years of full-time parish ministry and 7 years of teaching students with particular learning needs Jeff now works at George Mason University as a Graduate Research Assistant and a Graduate Lecturer while&nbsp;pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.</em></p><p><a href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Get Breath of the Spirit scripture reflections in your inbox every week.</a></p>