"I have chosen you"

It was not you who chose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last (Jn 15:16).

Jesus Christ in this passage tells us that we are not in this world by accident. Each human being is the image of God: “single, unique, and unrepeatable, someone thought of and chosen from eternity, someone called and identified by name" (John Paul II, Christmas Message, 25 December 1978). All human life is created in the image and likeness of God. Nothing surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person. Human life is not just an idea or an abstraction; human life is the concrete reality of a being that lives, that acts, that grows and develops; human life is the concrete reality of a being that is capable of love and of service to humanity. (Pope John Paul II, Homily, Mass at the Capitol Mall, Washington DC, 7 October 1979). God has put us here “as the crowning work of his creation” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 28 May 2006).

We have been born in this world for a purpose and that is to live for God. “What is our purpose in the world? To love God with all our heart and all our soul and to spread this love to all” (Conversations with Msgr. Josemaria Escriva, 106). St. Josemaria Escriva adds: “You and I belong to Christ's family, for 'he himself has chosen us before the foundation of the world, to be saints, to be blameless in his sight, for love of him, having predestined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his Will'. We have been chosen gratuitously by Our Lord. His choice of us sets us a clear goal. Our goal is personal sanctity, as St Paul insistently reminds us, haec est voluntas Dei: sanctificatio vestra, 'this is the Will of God: your sanctification' ” (Friends of God, 2).

Christ’s call is unceasing. Come to me. Follow me. There is only one response that Jesus Christ desires from us. And that is the path of love. But then, it is not enough to say that we love Christ. “Jesus does not only look for people to acclaim him. He looks for people to follow him” (Pope John Paul II, Homily, 21 June 1998). Our love has to be expressed in deeds of prayer and work, and of service to others beginning with those closest to us. All our activities from morning to night can and should lead us to God and nourish our intimacy with him (cf Christ is Passing By, 10). In this way we achieve the true purpose of our journey on earth, which is communion with God (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 26 May 2005).

And having found Christ, we need to make him known to others, for indeed we have been not only chosen but sent forth into the world, which is what being an apostle all means. For apostolate is love for God that overflows and communicates itself to others. (Christ is Passing By, 122). Whoever remains in Christ will bear much fruit of goodness, light, enthusiasm, generosity, a spirit of sacrifice, constancy in work, cheerfulness and perfect charity (cf Furrow, 921). Because without Christ we can do nothing (cf Jn 15:5). “He, Jesus, is everything. We, without him, are worth nothing: nothing” (The Way, 780).

God has chosen us; let us choose him. With him as the shepherd of our life, we will lack nothing (cf Ps 23:1).