Calling All Formers

Painting: THE CALL

With Commissioning Anniversaries taking place in some of the territories, and others just around the corner, it is time to remind ourselves that we have been ordained as "agents of reconciliation", and "commissioned to take the "good news" to the world.

I thought of a text, which is often forgotten. It is the story of a person who played a minor part in a major event. His name was Ananias. When the action begins, he is asleep. As he sleeps, he dreams, and in his dream God speaks to him: "Rise and go to the street called "Straight". Why go there? Because there is someone who needs him, a person by the name of Saul; and the name comes out like a shot. Saul, who was the arch enemy of Christians? Yes! He didn't actually say he wouldn't go, but we can imagine him saying it.

It often seems doesn't it, that God says to us: Go into that sick room infested with contagious disease, and do the best you can to help that particular person. Or go into that corrupt situation; you'll get your hands dirty, your reputation may be ruined, but go into it and do what you can. Or, go into that dark corner of your own life and straighten it out. And we protest and say, "Why me?"

God has a way of making strange choices. Think of a tax-gatherer, a revolutionary, four fishermen and six other nondescript men from the lower middle class.

We too have been chosen: with our strong temptations to which we sometimes yield, with our limited vision broad as it may be at times, with our mistaken judgments, and our narrow points of view and with all our self-centeredness - Christ has chosen us to carry his name, his life, his compassion, to somebody.

We marvel at the conversion of Paul; while we often miss completely the conversion of Ananias. Who can say: Which is the greatest conversion? Obviously of the two, Ananias is the lesser in the picture, but if Ananias hadn't had a change of heart, who can say that Saul would have been changed into Paul?

We are not Paul - we are Ananias. I speak for myself - I am Ananias. Over and over an adult has come to me. Something has happened and the person doesn't understand it. The light has either blinded him or her by its brilliance or left him or her in that dark by its complete absence. I stand there, Ananias, between the experience and the person. Sometimes I put my hand on the person's shoulder. That may be all that is necessary, all that is possible at the time. Sometimes I try to help the person see what the experience means, as Ananias, I am sure, must have talked to Paul about what to do next, because Paul got up and was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

This is the ministry of the agent of reconciliation. This is your ministry also. The message that comes to you today is to quit asking "Why me?, or "If only . . .". Instead get up and go to that one, that situation in which you as an agent of reconciliation, standing between the brightness of the light, and the over-sensitive eyes of the person who has seen it, can make possible a new life.

It is not something reserved for actives or formers: that is to find oneself mired in a form of clericalism. Every single Christian has a ministry of this kind. Every look one gives a person at work or on a Sunday morning may be the means of carrying the name of the Lord. People who live in homes, nursing homes, difficult places, where there is bitterness and jealousy and unhappiness; people who work in offices where there is tension and suspicion - wherever you are, whoever you are, you have the call to exercise this ministry.

Dr. John Sullivan

Former Officer, Canada