We each have a purpose given to us, writes Katie Fillion
I was recently attending a formation course for catechists aimed at working with children between 6-9 years old. One theme that we focused on was the child’s growing capacity for understanding time and history. In the same way that they can remember events from their own past, we begin to explain that we also have a much older, shared history, one that we read about in the Bible. A history for all people, of all times and places.
A blank page
This history is the story of our Salvation, of God’s presence so intimately woven into the fabric of time, and our individual lives. It has been unfolding since the very first moments of creation, of God’s first covenant with man, through the birth of Jesus Christ, our greatest Gift, to his death and resurrection, the very moment of our redemption, and even now, to the present time. Much of this history has already come to be, but there is also a page that hasn’t been written yet, a blank page. This blank page is both a time to come, when God will be all in all, and the time that we are living in right now. The story still unfolding, still being written. Our time.
This concept of ‘a blank page’ struck me. It was amazing to me that we can somehow collaborate with God in writing this blank page, and even more amazing still that God even seeks our collaboration. This history is now being handed on to us. How incredible it is to think that we each have a part to play in the writing of the history of the Kingdom of God. We each have a purpose given to us by God himself, a unique call etched into our hearts. A mission to live out. This mission, this call, has been given to each and every one of us in the same way that it was given to those who have come before us in faith.
He encountered them in an immensely personal way before calling them on to do their own particular work for his Kingdom”
Our God is not a distant God but rather a God who desires relationship with His people. A God who seeks our active collaboration in bringing about his plan for our Salvation. All throughout the Bible, throughout our very own Salvation history, we see examples of people encountering God, experiencing the power of his transforming love, the power of His grace and mercy alive in their lives, both individually and as a people. We see how God raised up people like Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament to Peter and Paul, and most especially our Blessed Mother, Mary, in the New Testament. From Mount Sinai to the road to Damascus to Mary’s fiat in the tiny town of Nazareth, he encountered them in an immensely personal way before calling them on to do their own particular work for his Kingdom.
Encounter
This is what He wants for you and me. He wants us to have a deeply personal encounter, an experience of his transforming love in our lives as he begins to guide us in how we, too, are to help write this Sacred history, help the Kingdom of God to grow by allowing others to see this lived experience in our own lives.
What an incredible gift it is to be able to work out with God what our role is to be, what our part in writing this blank page is to look like. Admittedly, this can also seem like quite the challenge. I know that, for me at least, it can be a struggle, even frustrating at times. I wish God would just tell me outright what my part is to be, or what his will in my life looks like. That would be easier, right? But He doesn’t. Maybe in some ways, in certain situations, He does, but certainly not in all. I don’t get to see the whole picture of his divine plan or how He intends to work in me and through me in writing this blank page of our time. But I suppose that this is something that we can learn from all those who have come before us in this Sacred history. God doesn’t give us the whole plan upfront, He reveals Himself slowly, over time. His presence gently guiding us as he unfolds his plan in our lives, just as He has all throughout time before.
He gives us little glimpses of what His Kingdom is to look like, opportunities for encountering his love in our lives”
Allowing the journey of discovery to make us more fully into the people He created us to be. This divinely inspired gift of our lives, of our work for the Kingdom of Heaven, and the process of working out what that is to be with His help, isn’t something that can be rushed. It is the work of a lifetime.
He does sometimes give us hints and nudges along the way, though, to remind us who we are. That we are His people, and He is our God. He gives us little glimpses of what His Kingdom is to look like, opportunities for encountering His love in our lives.
One profound experience of personally encountering that love in my own life was at my very first Youth 2000 Summer Festival when I was a teenager. I remember being completely overwhelmed by the great love that I experienced coming face-to-face with in the Eucharistic healing service that was held one night. An encounter so deep, so personal, I still remember it seven years later.
Festival
This year’s Youth 2000 Summer Festival is coming up on 15-18 August in Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare. It’s for those aged 16-35, and it promises to be a blessed weekend full of encounters with Our Lord. The very same God who has been orchestrating this Sacred history all throughout time. The same God who wants to reveal Himself to you, now, in this very moment. He seeks to encounter you, and me, so that we can each work with Him, collaborate with Him, in writing this Sacred history. What an incredible journey it is that we are called to in helping to write this blank page.