In ordinary time, or the time after Christmas, the green vestments worn by priests symbolize Spring and a time of renewal. The first thing we hear is that God is calling us - like he did Samuel, and Peter, There is a pattern in scripture, that the calling of God to discipleship is time and again. For Samuel, from the slumber of sleep and with Peter, he is called repeatedly throughout the Gospel, including the 3 times he denied Christ. Our human weakness allows our setbacks in life, and sometimes we are overcome with our weakness, and have our breakdowns, but we should not be afraid of them because the Lord is calling us to be more responsive and to allow his call to deepen in each one of us.
A daughter had found a note that the father had written to the mother about the difficulties they were having in their marriage, and he noted that they needed a fresh start. The daughter never knew that anything was wrong or they were having struggles - they seemed happy for 50 years, but it revealed to her that their struggles created opportunities for the fresh start to begin, and the marriage to last. Bishop Fulton sheen told a story about the time his fame so overwhelmed him that it began to overcome his priesthood. He began to lose focus - and one day he visited a leper colony, and as he was handing out rosaries, a man walked up to him and he noticed that his hand had been eaten up by this disease so badly that it left just a stump, and that he was so repulsed by the mans hand that he just dropped the rosary over the man's limb and walked away! All of a sudden, a sense of shame overcame over him, and he went back, and took the rosary back from him, then placed it in what remained of this mans eaten up hand, in order to tell him that he was close to him and to remind himself that he became a priest to in order to be close and to share in the suffering of others, and suffer therein himself Those times of shame - those setbacks, are moments that are not to be feared in life - but embraced as opportunities from God in which he is calling us again and again - to something new. The struggles that we have in bringing people to the faith, we should not be afraid of the struggles, nor the challenges ahead of us - but see them as an opportunity from the Lord to do something new. We are the United States of America, and unity is the hallmark of who we are, its an oppurtinyt once again to reclaim our indemnity and fight for the unity that is important for us to remain a nation that is and always will be the example of democracy through the world. Our challenge is not to be afraid of our setbacks, our breakdowns and our challenges, but a start to do something new. The color green reminds us that God is offering us a new spring time by his grace, a grace that tells us that he is always doing something new.