ST. BRIDGIT OF SWEDEN
Yesterday we considered Micah’s question: "Who is like God?" The answer? I am made in the image of God. Today, the prophet Jeremiah gives a further insight into who we are: there was divine activity in each of our lives even before conception. God knew each of us. He had a plan for you and me even before birth. From all eternity you and I had a place in God’s mind or, we might say, in his intention. He knew precisely when we would become a part of his world. We have been and are a part of God’s plan for the communities where we live, where we work and wherever we live out our life’s journeys.
Yesterday we considered Micah’s question: "Who is like God?" The answer? I am made in the image of God. Today, the prophet Jeremiah gives a further insight into who we are: there was divine activity in each of our lives even before conception. God knew each of us. He had a plan for you and me even before birth. From all eternity you and I had a place in God’s mind or, we might say, in his intention. He knew precisely when we would become a part of his world. We have been and are a part of God’s plan for the communities where we live, where we work and wherever we live out our life’s journeys.
Before we were born God in his infinite and divine wisdom had dedicated each of us to be, as was Jeremiah, a prophet or as mentioned earlier this month, an apostle. We were appointed to a specific spiritual mission for our God. If we take time to nurture this concept, time to let God speak to us about our mission, we might be frightened by the magnitude of this reality. It says, in essence, none of us is "just here" to take up space.
We cannot be overwhelmed or frightened by what is awesome. Just as God replied to Jeremiah’s fright and hesitation, God replied to any doubts we might have in living out what God wants us to be, to do. Don’t forget: he has promised his support. "Do not fear. I am with you."
Just as a child becomes like his or her parent through days of growth and formation, so too, is our God ever present to us. Our task is first and foremost to be open to God’s voice that we find in and through the words of scripture and the lives of saints who were, remember, men and women like you and me.
St. Bridget married and gave the world eight children. She heard God’s voice for her life. After raising her children and her husband’s death she founded a religious order of women, the Brigittine Order. Her primary message was this, again a note of perseverance as noted about Mary Magdalene: endure whatever suffering might come to you for the sake of Jesus Christ.
