In life we are invited to do what God summons us to do at all times and in all things. This is our purpose as disciples, and the Holy Spirit is our prompter. The Holy Spirit helps us to stay forward looking even if pain and suffering land on our pathway. On the spiritual journey, we rarely seek suffering, it simply arrives in the middle of what we are supposed to be doing. Bishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was celebrating Mass when government troops martyred him. He knew they wanted him, but he kept doing the Lord’s work. And this is how he died.
Our Baptism teaches us how to live everyday. We practice Jesus' great mandate “to love one another” and also to follow his great commission “to go to the ends of the earth bringing his Good News.”
We are asked to keep his mandate and commission “in good times and in bad." Together they make up the “purpose that drives our lives” writes Vinita Hampton Wright. Whether famous or unknown, rich or poor, titled or provincial, it doesn’t matter, we all get up with one purpose in mind, i.e., to “build the kingdom through the ordinary acts of love we perform each day. It’s as easy as saying “Good Morning” or even “Thank You.” The Lord accepts all we offer.
Holding to “the purpose that drives our lives” we witness to Jesus’ life and words. And best of all we give to others what we ourselves so easily receive from Jesus when we ask - care, patience and compassion!
These are the lights that illuminate our way, not those failed derailed plans, or those embarrassing mistakes we make along the way. If we stay set on the Lord, no form of pain will crush us. We will make it! And because faithfulness is our true purpose, Jesus’ purpose, in return, is to see that we do.