Fifth Sunday of Easter

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. - 1 Peter 2:9

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own. Peter writes this to a community of people who are, by most of the world's measures, nobody in particular - scattered, marginalized, belonging to a movement that the Roman Empire regards as a minor irritant. He does not tell them to act more worthy of the designation. He tells them what they already are. The identity is given before the behavior is requested. You belong to him. You were called out of darkness. The light you are standing in is wonderful, and it was his idea, not yours.

Sister, receive this again today: chosen, royal, holy, his own. Not because you have earned these things or maintained them without failure. Because he laid a cornerstone in Zion and you have come to it, and the coming is the belonging. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and you are a living stone fitted around it. Rejected by human beings means nothing before chosen and precious in the sight of God.

The community in Acts 6 is growing and fraying at the edges at the same time - the Hellenist widows are being neglected, the practical needs are outrunning the capacity of the Twelve. The Church's response is not to minimize the complaint or to tell the Hellenists to be patient. It is to expand the structure, to select seven reputable men filled with the Spirit and wisdom, to lay hands on them and send them to the table. The people who matter are fed. The word of God continues to spread. Even a large group of priests come to the faith. The house that takes care of its most vulnerable members is the house that grows.

You are part of a house that is meant to take care of its most vulnerable. That begins in your home and extends into your parish and outward. You who have been called out of darkness are called to announce the praises - which means your life is itself an announcement. How you treat the overlooked. How you see the people others walk past. How you remain in the word until the truth sets you free. These are the praises announced in the language of a life.

You are a royal priesthood - which means you offer sacrifices. Name one thing you are carrying right now that you can offer as a spiritual sacrifice: a frustration, a grief, a disappointment, an unresolved situation. Bring it explicitly to Mary this month - she who offered the sacrifice of her son and remained standing. Ask her to teach you how to make an offering out of what is costing you. The holy priesthood offers what it costs them. That is what makes it holy.

Lord, I am chosen and precious in your sight even on the days when I do not feel it. I have been called out of darkness into wonderful light, and sometimes I forget to live in the light because the darkness feels more familiar. Help me receive what you have said I am before I try to act like it. Fit me to the stones around me. Feed the vulnerable in my daily distribution. And let my life be an announcement of your praises in every room I enter. Alleluia. Amen.