Meeting the Need (05/20/2024)

Yesterday, as mass began, I wondered who the lector would be. I was a lector, but I wasn’t scheduled. I saw two other lectors around me, but neither of them had been to the ambo before mass to check the readings. Mass began. Fr. Jim led us in our opening prayers and then we all sat down for the readings. Only there was no reader. I turned to the man behind me who was also a lector. I said, “We need a reader.” And he said, “I will do it.” And he did.

Life is like that sometimes. There is a need. We are there assuming it is being handled. But when we realize it is not, will we step up? Will we meet the need of the moment?

It doesn’t just happen in church. No, in fact, most of the time, it happens in the byways of life, at the market, on the street, in the park, in the neighborhood. Jesus told us that we are to love one another as He has loved us. He gave us the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan, the example of one who acts in the moment of need without thought of self or acceptance but rather with thought of the other. Are we the ones who will say in the hour of need, “I will do it”?

“I will do it.” One of my favorite hymns is “Here I Am, LORD” by Dan Schutte. It has had great meaning for me most of my adult life. I believe to my core that the LORD does call us to act in His name, to bring His love into our world, to be instruments of His divine will. “I will go, LORD, if You lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.” Those lines haunt me because I believe the LORD calls us without ceasing. How many times have I dismissed the call because of lack of confidence or convenience?

Let us seek the help of the Spirit who gifts us and graces us for the moment and who guides us as we journey. Let us pray specifically for the courage to step up when the need arises and the gifts necessary to meet the needs of the moment for love of our LORD and one another. Let us seek to be true instruments of our LORD’s divine design throughout our lives, open to the LORD’s call to serve.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.