As we begin a new year, with its traditional resolutions, I thought it would be beneficial to check that our new year resolutions are in accordance with God’s will? And by this, I don’t mean some general sense applying to all Christians, but to the particular calling that the Good Lord has in mind for each unique person, especially as disciples of Jesus.
I would like to explore the question how we can discover our “sealed orders,” hidden in our hearts, which will lead us along the path God has chosen for us and which he calls us to follow in the footsteps of Our Saviour.
This image of “sealed orders” comes from the title of the autobiography of a Christian evangelist, Agnes Sanford, who lived from 1897 to 1982. Born in China to Presbyterian missionaries, she returned to America where she became deeply interested in the ministry of inner healing, specifically the healing of memories.
Her influence was widely felt, for example, in the Charismatic Movement, both in Protestant and Catholic versions.
The interesting title of her memoir, published in 1972, suggests that as members of the Church Militant each of us is entrusted with a specific task to accomplish for our commander in chief, like soldiers sent out on a secret mission, not told in advance where they are to go or what to achieve.
On opening the seal on our orders, we discover the important mission on which our master is counting throughout our lives. To ignore those orders is to let our loving God down and to waste our own precious energy on what is unessential or worse, worthless.
The obvious method to unseal those hidden orders is of course by means of prayer, beginning with the Lord’s prayer, in which we pray that God’s will may be done in order that His Kingdom might come through our specific cooperation.
The sacraments and spiritual devotions may also be of help, as well as various forms of meditation and contemplation, if we are to enter into our souls where angels guard those precious divine instructions.
But in this reflection, I want to emphasise the role of those around us, especially our loved ones, in helping us to discern our specific calling at a particular time. Note that the Lord may send new orders at any time, so we must not rest on our laurels, thinking that the Lord is finished with us.
So, I want to reflect on the scriptural readings for the Feast of the Holy Family, especially the Old Testament story of Hannah and Samuel (I Samuel 1: 20-28) and the familiar story of the Child Jesus lost in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52). I consider it pretty obvious that the first people to help us find our orders are our parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives.
Hannah suffered from infertility in a culture where being unable to bear children was devastating for any wife. Think of the cry of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, in which she praises God for taking away her shame (Lk 1:25)! Hannah prays to God for help in her misery. Overheard by the priest Eli, he joins her in prayer, which is then answered with the birth of the future prophet, Samuel. Hannah is overjoyed and sings a hymn which is the template for the later hymn of Mary the mother of Jesus, the Magnificat (1 Sam 2:1-10).
Surprisingly, Hannah’s response to God’s gift is to return the boy to God, once he is weaned. She recognises the special nature of her child as one chosen by God to serve as a prophet. In other words, she senses the sealed orders in the soul of her child which she is unable to unseal.
Instead, she is inspired to return to the priest Eli, leaving her precious son in his capable hands, trusting that he will enable the boy to discern his calling.
In a familiar story, Eli helps the young Samuel recognise the mysterious voice calling him three times as God’s voice, telling him to listen carefully and to respond: “Speak Lord your servant is listening” (1Sam 3:7-11). Instead of acting possessively, this most generous of mothers is willing to let go and let her child become the person God has destined him to be.
The Gospel account of the child Jesus lost in the temple has a similar moral, but in this story it is the child himself who has a sense of his sealed orders and is trying to uncover the message by debating religious matters with the doctors of the law in the temple – his father’s house.
Mary and Joseph find themselves challenged by their precocious child with his claim to be about “his father’s business.” But the mystery remains, the orders remain sealed, though Mary will treasure the experience in her heart for years to come.
Jesus is said to have gone home with his parents, living under their authority, growing in wisdom, bit by bit opening those sealed orders until he is baptised in the Jordan by John and hears the voice of his Father, revealing him as the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
The important insight in this story is that Mary, like Hannah, must recognise that the child belongs to God and that his mission is one that ultimately will depend on God’s decision to reveal it. Mary and Joseph can facilitate the unsealing of the orders, but it is really God’s work from beginning to end.
In fact, we can imagine that Jesus must have been helped in discovering his calling by another holy family, that of Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John the Baptist. And, eventually, it will be John who points him out Jesus as the Lamb of God, sending his own disciples to follow the Christ.
I mentioned earlier that our sealed orders do not necessarily come all at once or once and for all! The Lord may have a new mission for us at any stage of our lives, as in the example of the elderly couple, Simeon and Anna, who in Luke’s Gospel are called to witness to Jesus when he is presented in the temple (Lk.2:25-40).
Here I think of our own situation in Multyfarnham, where just three friars are left in the house itself, while four are now residents in the nearby nursing home. I like to think that those brothers have a new ministry of presence in that place, though retired from formal church ministry.
Perhaps one can suggest that each of them has new sealed orders to open, new possibilities of witnessing to God’s eternal love for his creation.
As we begin this new year, I wish every blessing on those who are reading this and those who attend our church either in person or virtually by means of webcam. May you be open to God’s Spirit, God’s post-person, always delivering fresh orders to his beloved adopted children.
Kieran ofm