“There, in the depths of our soul, He calls us and we just have to answer: ‘…here I am, for you have called me.’” (Saint Josemaría).
God is calling me – He is calling you too. And He is calling us every moment of every day…
In the Old Testament of the Bible we are told about the calling of God – “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine.” (Isaiah 43:1).
And in the New Testament of the Bible we are shown HOW God calls us – “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rab-boni!’ (which means Teacher).” (John 20:11-18).
In the Old Testament we are told that God is calling us by our name, and in the New Testament, He actually does it! Mary Magdalene was crying at the tomb of Christ. She knew Christ and knew Him well. After all, she had spent years travelling with Christ and His disciples, and yet, she did not recognise Christ Resurrected... Mary Magdalene’s eyes could not see that God was before her… But her ears could hear it!
You see, Mary’s suffering was very great. First she suffered giving witness to the death of God, and then she suffered for having been unable to find His body in the tomb… Pope Francis explains that “John the Evangelist stresses how persistent her blindness is. She does not notice the presence of the two angels who question her, and she does not become suspicious even when she sees the Man behind her, whom she believes is the custodian of the garden. Instead, she discovers the most overwhelming event in the history of mankind when she is finally called by her name: ‘Mary!’”
When He called her name, “Mary” she KNEW HIM… He did not say, “Mary, are you blind? It is Me?” He did not say, “Mary, don’t you recognise me?” He did not say, “Mary, I told you I would rise from the dead.” He did not even say, “It is Me, Mary, It’s Jesus. Here I am…”
All He did was say her name, “Mary” – that is how God calls us – just using our name. And when He called Mary Magdalene in this way, she flew to Him!
You see, because Christ is God, He knows very well how to call us by our names – He called Andrew, James, John, Simon-Peter, Nicodemus, Martha, Matthew, Bartholomew, even Judas… And those are just a few of the names that were called by God that we are told about in the New Testament… And when He called each of these names those people ran to Him – because they understood that it was God who was calling them!
Saint Josemaría said, “There, in the depths of our soul, He calls us and we just have to answer: ‘Ecce ego quia vocasti me – here I am, for you have called me.’”
And so it is that I pray for the Grace to be able to say, “here I am, for you have called me”.
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.