“Many are
called, but few are chosen.” Although few are chosen, does this mean many are
called? Many who were called did not turn up. The great audition lacked some
otherwise ambitious performers. (That’s how you don’t get the job). When the
choice is down, the call goes to whom you did not expect. All the usual
suspects found somewhere else to be on the day when the Holy Spirit stood
beside Paul and made the right call. For a while.
You can choose or be chosen. Which
is more worrying? Think of the last kid chosen for the sports team. (Suffer the
little children). Is one choice better than the other? Many vocations, many
locutions. Who has the choice to choose? Then who is called, and who’s called
out?
Out of court, out of time, out of
options. Some shall be out, some shall be in. (In favour, in prison; in
trouble, in luck.) Where Martha has many calls on her attention, Mary has one
only. That’s just a fact: if Martha didn’t answer, dinner wouldn’t make it to
the table. The dinner, the table, the bread, the wine. The gift. The last shall
be first; the first last.
