Called from birth to be God's servants

Today’s first reading, Is. 49: 1-6, is all about God’s servants, you and me, and about Jesus.  Each of us is called from birth to serve the Lord, to carry out the Father’s will for us, to live intelligent, creative lives for the sake of the Kingdom and to be as “sharp” in doing good, perceiving and avoiding evil as any “two-edged sword”.  We are conceal in the “shadow” of God’s love and “polished” by grace, even, and especially, when we think we have “toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly [spending our] strength.” 

 Think of Jesus’ ministry coming to an end in the way it did. Truly, it looked as though He had “toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent…[His] strength.”  At the Last supper He confides to His assembled disciples that one of them is going to betray Him and another will deny Him 3xs before the cock crows. In the darkest of hours, Jesus is abandoned by those He thought were faithful friends.

When things get rough in life, do I abandon others? Do I walk away from Jesus, from people who count on my support, even betraying them and walking out into “the night” to do that which I know is wrong of me to do?” When push comes to shove, do I deny knowing Jesus, knowing those who need me to stand by their side?  In the difficulties of life do I abandon the faith in which I was raised?