#homily #gaudete For the past month, there has been a lot of news concerning who President Trump is choosing to be part of his next cabinet when he takes over the reins of government on January 20. When a new name is announced and you read the reaction of the person chosen, you hear them saying something like, “I would like to thank President Trump for his trust in me. This is the honor of my life. I will do my utmost best to serve the American people”. Whenever a person in a place of power singles out someone and chooses them for a particular role, that person feels honored and has a great desire to the do the task assigned. This is how the Apostles felt when they were chosen by Our Lord Jesus Christ to be His followers and the leaders of His newly-formed Church. He told them at the Last Supper, “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go, and bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain” (Jn. 15:16) St. Paul would often begin his epistles by saying, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” and would emphasize that he received his mission from God Himself. Throughout this time of Advent, there is a figure who appears time and again in the Gospels, the precursor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, St. John the Baptist. At the end of every Mass, we read about him that, “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him.” (Jn. 1:6-7) St. John today makes the bold claim that he is a figure fulfilling a prophecy of Isaias some centuries before that there would be a prophet who would prepare the way for the Messias. We still speak of these figures today, and especially of Our Lady, because they were given important roles in the kingdom of God. It is one thing to be given a role by a powerful man; it is quite another thing to be given a role by Almighty God.
