Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
June 26, 2023 - Monday, 12th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalm 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22
The main theme of the Bible is the election of Israel. The ancient Jewish commentators were puzzled by the fact that the Lord who looks down from heaven and sees all humankind (see Ps 33:13) chose Abraham to be the recipient of God’s blessing (see Gen 12:1-3). Was God calling everyone and only Abraham answered? This puzzlement continues with the following up question: why was Israel chosen out of all the nations of the world to be the precious possession of the Lord?
“Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he has chosen for his own inheritance” (Ps 33:12). The theme of election runs through the entire Bible but as much as we meditate on it and try to explain it, it remains a mystery. Saint Paul struggled to explain it in his letter to the Romans. Himself a Jew and fervent apostle of Christ, he agonised over the fact that the Gospel he preached with such zeal was rejected by most of his fellow Jews but readily accepted by the Gentiles. Why?
China has around 1.3 billion citizens and the number of Catholics is estimated around 10 million. What is the chance of being born and raised in a Catholic family? What is the chance of hearing the message of the Gospel in that nation and becoming Christian? And yet, despite slim chances of being born in a Christian family or hearing the Gospel the number of Christians is growing in China. How does God choose his people from among 1.3 billion Chinese? The same question applies to the world: How does God choose his people from 8 billion people in the world?
Let us go back to our previous question: “Why was Israel chosen out of all the nations of the world to be the precious possession of the Lord?” The answer is in the book of Deuteronomy: “It is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers” (Deut. 7:8). God’s election is an act of God’s love and his grace. It does not depend on our merits. And with that election, as Saint Paul explains to us, came incredible privileges. To Israel “belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Rom 9:4-5). Israel is indeed blessed. But so are we, Christians.
Saint Peter calls us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). Yet, with this enormous blessing comes responsibility. We are called to share the Gospel with others, to “proclaim the excellencies of [God] who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Let everyone experience the blessing of being chosen by God as his treasured possession.