Prophet, priest and king

Today Amelie Rachel was baptised and received new life in Christ, along with five other babies at the Church of St. Teresa. I rejoiced at being chosen as one of her god-parents, to guide her in the faith and journey with her through life.

The baptismal initiation into the priesthood of Christ comes with the invitation to participate in Christ's threefold office of being prophet, priest and king. With our own unique gifts, we are called, as individuals, to bear witness, worship and serve Him with love. Thus in discipleship, we share the singular vocation of building the Kingdom of God in the here and now.

The readings this Sunday were apt. First from Isaiah chapter six, a response to the Lord's call:" Here I am, send me!". Then St. Paul recounts in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 15) how he came to experience Christ's grace and thereafter became committed to spreading to all he met the good news of salvation. And finally, in chapter five of Luke's gospel, Simon Peter, James and John experience conversion and leave everything to follow Jesus and become "fishers of people".

Simple, ordinary folk who met Jesus in their everyday activity and responded to His call simply and wholeheartedly. While we are all not worthy, as St. Paul puts it, "I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle", with grace, we can surmount our human weakness and become His instruments of sacrificial love in our everyday lives. We don't have to accomplish great things, for it is enough that we seek to do His work in small ways, ways that are within our capability.

A great role model is St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, who is known for her "Little Way" of accomplishing much for God through the humblest and simplest acts of love.

"I am a very little soul, who can offer only very little things to the Lord."

My gift to Amelie is the prayer that she will be like The Little Flower and always walk in humility and love, building the Kingdom in small, baby ways.