CALLED TO BE A HOLY PEOPLE
In the past decade, men and women of faith have had very troubled hearts as we have witnessed the
terror, warfare and economic upheaval that beset so much of the world. Our troubled hearts come from events in our personal lives, in our health or our family’s health, in the economy or in the headlines. In times of trouble and
distress we often turn to God for a sign to show us the way, to show us what we should do. What is our purpose as God’s people, other than simply to offer time for worship on a weekly basis? What more should we be doing? How do we follow God’s way? How do we do the Lord’s work in this place?
We don’t have to go far in metropolitan Atlanta to find massive pockets of poverty — not just physical poverty, but spiritual poverty. Men and women of faith are called as a people of God, to exhibit his love in needy places, just as we do in our homes, our neighborhoods and our parish.
There are so many things that we can do to care for each other within the family of the household of God, and to care for our extended family, friends and neighbors. Beyond that, we are to care for the strangers in our midst, the sojourners who come for a while to work or to seek rest.
It is an imperative of the Church to care for the young people and children who are just now coming to know the Lord, making sure that behind us there will be never-ending generations of the faithful to tell of the love of Christ. We are to raise the youth, the children, the teenagers, and the young adults in our community to know the Lord who has meant so much to us in our lives. We are to nurture the adults who are searching to find more in their lives than whatever it is we have known and done so far — searching to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts that can be filled only by the Holy Spirit.
In other words, we are called to be who we already are, a holy people, a royal priesthood, members of the household of faith. It is you and I that do God’s work to proclaim his love in this world in which we live.