Today I am sharing the reflection given for Saturday morning prayer by Peter Chiaro to the deacon candidates this past weekend. Peter is a deacon candidate from St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Clinton, TN.

Be solicitous to make your call and election permanent, brothers; surely those who do so will never be lost. On the contrary, your entry into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for. 2 Peter 1:10-11

This morning’s reading has only two verses, but their meaning and what they say
is critical to our future. I would like to look at several phrases in my reflection.
 Be solicitous
 Your call
 Election permanent
 Will never be lost
 On the contrary
 Everlasting Kingdom
 Richly provided for
Be solicitous – There are several definitions, but the definitions that fit best
include “full of desire” and “eager.” Now, bringing in your call and election
permanent, the verse tells us to be eager, be if I could say, excited, that we have
been called. We have been called to make our election, our service to others
permanent. And if we are eager and full of desire, desire to please God by serving
others, we will never be lost. In order to make that happen, to fulfill our call, our
election permanent, we must be changed. That change, which takes time at least
for me, will bring us to the goal that is eternal life in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
But, and there is always a but, if on the contrary, we don’t stay that course, we
will be lost. Worse, we may cause others, even those not known to us at this
time, to become lost. This change, if we allow it to take place, can be like, and I
have used this to describe my previous work efforts, it can be like the liquid metal
robot in one of the terminator movies. Now stay with me, there is a scene in the
movie where the robot, forget that he is evil, is after someone else. There are

gates preventing a normal person from getting to the other side. Those gates aren’t
taken down or removed, the liquid metal robot passes through the rungs and
then is on the other side in the form he was in previously. We can put up gates
and bars around ourselves, but God through Jesus Christ can pass through those
bars and form again within us. Think Eucharist. We can think well it’s just a piece
of bread. A wafer. But we know it is Jesus Christ. We take Him in. We allow Him
to break through those gates and barriers, and reform within us. We can then be
changed. I would like to also think that is what may be taking place as we move
through formation. We are formed into another. Another more perfect, more
Christ-like being. Being solicitous, having the desire and eagerness, controlled and
steady, breaks down those barriers we all have in place and change can occur.
We can then help enable this same thing, this change to take place in others, but
we have to be steadfast. We have to be strong, maybe at times fearless. Fearless
of others, those close to us as well as strangers we may meet. We must speak the
truth. If we remain strong, if we speak the truth, entrance into the eternal Kingdom of
our Lord will be provided to us. Paraphrasing a morning antiphon, “The upright
man who speaks the truth is blessed.”

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.