.

I was on the road for most of the past three days.

Early Friday morning a friend arrived from Italy for a quick catch-up.  We travelled to Twizel where I celebrated the Vigil Mass then to Fairlie for the Sunday Mass and immediately after Mass we were again on the road to Christchurch airport.

We had great conversations. Inspiring. Centred on life’s real stuff and knowing that God is in all of it, the good and the bad, the ups and downs.

And that became the starting point for my weekend homily.  How often we miss the point by thinking that we need to search for God in distant places, trying to get our lives in order with goodness, faithfulness and prayer in the life of the Church.

But we really miss the point if we don’t discover that God is present, real and active in life just as it is and in me and you just as we are.

The Sunday Gospel makes the point well telling of the calling of the twelve, the first disciples of Jesus.

What a bunch.

They were helpless, helpless and hopeless.

What was Jesus thinking to choose these guys?

In my homily I used a well-known piece of satire: imagine that before Jesus made his choice he consulted well and widely. Imagine if he had even checked out the CV’s of the twelve with a local employment agency.

The professional response might have read something like this:

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organisation. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.

As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely,

Jordan Management Consultants

You get the point.

Thanks be to God I can realise again that Jesus has called us and is calling us.