Who Will Go? Who Will Answer?

Daily Readings: 2 Kings 2:1-15; James 5:16-20; Luke 4:25-30
Ընթերցուածքներ` Դ Թագց. Բ 1-15; Յակ. Ե 16-20; Ղուկ. Դ 25-30

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Cold, damp and unwelcoming; The freezing rains of Scotland were not easy to handle for many. Yet, he came, he called even though many did not come. Those who did come were elderly, sick, and unable. Those who answered, had hearts of servants, and a willing spirit yet, tired at best, but that labor that was needed, demanded a call, demanded an answer. And so, the pastor called, “who will go?, who will answer the call of God?” Silence followed the charge; A silence so powerful you could count the drops of rain falling on the side of the Church because to answer was to trade the unwelcoming cold and rain of home for the unwelcoming scorching sun, of a foreign land, where death was far more certain than rain. “Who will go?”

My dear brothers and sisters, last week we celebrated the Holy Feast of Pentecost – what we learn is the birth of the Church. Church not as a building, that some of us may picture or understand, but Church as St. Paul describes it as “the body of Christ” a community of Communion, our home from where we learn and grow in our faith. Yet, as we also witnessed from the readings of last week, the Church as a body is not stagnant; it does not sit in a room and chant words of poetry. The Church gives life, it grows and aids in our growth in faith. Our communion and life in the Church pushes us to live, to labor, to talk and love outside these walls of comfort. The life of our Christian faith through the Church we learn therefore, is a response to what many of us often reserve to priests– the call. So often I get asked that question, when did I feel the call? When did I feel God calling me to serve? Yet, this is a misdirected questions because the reality is my dears, God calls each and every one of us; God does not limit His call to only men with beards. Yet, to understand how and to what God is calling us to, we must live in the Church – we must begin with a life of prayer.

St. Padre Pio referred to prayer as “the oxygen of the soul”; just as physical oxygen is essential for life, prayer is considered crucial for sustaining a healthy spiritual life. Through prayer we learn discernment; through prayer we learn love and compassion. Our Church Father’s further emphasis this by teaching us the prayer is the awareness of our Communion with God. Meaning prayer is not a list of desires but rather prayer illuminates our hearts, opens our eyes and ears to be self-conscious, self-aware of who God is and what God has called us to – this is called Communion. Therefore, prayer even for someone still learning and growing in faith is so powerful that St. James today reminds us, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its effects.” A righteous person is one who is seeking God; a righteous person is not just a priest, but men and women, children and elderly who have a heart and desire to love God and to grow in Communion with Him. Someone who sees God’s love not just in what they receive but in also what they do for others; Those prayers are powerful beyond measure or understanding. If last week, we celebrated the birth of the Church when the Holy Spirit came upon the Disciples and upon us through our Holy Baptism where the Holy Spirit called us to understanding, then prayer is our renewed response, our answer to the call by the Holy Spirit. Who will answer my dears, and how will we answer when we are called?

In the small Church, as the rain came down and the pastor called out, “who will go?” a little boy named David Livingstone, who assisted the organist, stood up and said, “I will answer, I will go!” Perhaps, the elderly and the pastor smiled at the kind gesture of the child who was so eager to answer God’s call. Perhaps we would have laughed as well, as so often we do when someone new to faith or young desires to get involved in the life of the Church – thinking they don’t understand. Yet, God our Heavenly Father calls us all and as this young man grew up, at the advice of his pastor he became a doctor and eventually he did answer and go to Africa as a missionary. During his time there, he kept a detailed dairy and in one of this passages he writes of how a local village chief had sent a threat, “we are going to come tonight, and we are going to kill you and everyone in the compound.” Time pasted, no one came, and David continued his missionary work until one day, the village and even the village chief who had threatened him, came to faith in Christ. Curiosity getting the better of him, David asked the chief, “all those years ago, you sent me a message that you would kill me, but you never came.” “We did come,” said the chief. “We came but turned back, when we saw that the entire compound was surrounded by 39 well trained, fully armed, giant warriors. We knew we couldn’t get it.” Having no idea what the chief meant David continued to live his life until one day when we he returned to Scotland and shared this story. The secretary of the Church asked Dr. David, “do you remember the date when the chief was going to kill you?” “Why yes, I have it written in my diary.” David opened it up and showed her. Immediately, with a shock, the secretary took the Church attendance book and showed that on that date, 39 of the elderly people, who had willing spirits though weak in body, in that tiny Church in Scotland, in the unwelcoming cold and rain, had gathered in prayer for his missionary work – 39 well trained, fully armed, giant warriors whose prayers surrounded the compound.

My dear brothers and sisters, pray; pray to learn how to pray; pray to learn and grow not for the things we want like children talking to Santa Claus but as children talking to our parents, responding out of love; Pray in response to understand how God calls all of us. Christ Jesus our Lord called fishermen, tax-collectors, children, elderly, educated, short, tall, rejected by society, everyone to follow Him. And know that our prayers are heard; our prayers reveal the divine image and likeness we were created in and through prayer begin to see that image and likeness of Christ in each other. Our prayers fill our Church, our lungs with new oxygen so that we will not only live but continue to grow as a family, as a community. This is why St. James continues in his letter, “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects…if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” Our prayers can change the world, can change our Churches, can save not just our souls but the souls of all those who are trying to find God’s love, compassion and forgiveness. Prayer is the greatest of virtues as St. Isaac the Syrian teaches. So therefore, pray; pray to listen, pray in answer; pray as a way of living. And in our unceasing prayer, we will always bring glory to our Heavenly Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen!