by Katheryn Mulderinck
“The just…planted in the house of the Lord,
will flourish…still bearing fruit when they are old,
still full of sap, still green,
to proclaim that the Lord is just.” (Psalm 92)
On the wave of a hope-tempered grief,
under the solemn weight of history they bear,
115 are gathered, equal
votes, beseeching and discerning who among them
will next bind and loose, feed the lambs, guide
the journeying people of God.
Who will fill the vacant seat?
Among them, a humble laborer,
content to labor in the peace of the shadows
of the vineyard for the Master he loves,
to study and speak the truth, as one enriching earth,
that others may be free.
But God, Hidden Mystery, ever-Gift,
has a Plan beyond our plans. He is calling this one
from the heart of the vineyard into the eye of the world.
On the 77th call of his name, while others
draw in breath at the recognition that one
is now chosen out of them, that
suddenly one is no longer equal, that
the Spirit is ever at work to surprise,
this one is alone.
With face in hands, alone for a moment
in his awe, holding his bewilderment
before the One he loves, he surrenders himself anew,
entrusts this entrustment
with an exhalation,
“Lord, Master, you are really calling me.
You are entrusting
the keys to these hands. Thy will, thy will,
I want only Thy will.
I will not be afraid.
You can do all things. Even this.
I will serve. I will serve your servants.
With Your strength, with all of me,
I will serve until You call me Home.
Accepto. Accepto.”
Strengthened by trust in Mercy and sustained
by the memory of his
Great Friend, recently entombed,
knowing beyond any hesitation that
God can do all things, he proclaims, with all of him:
Accepto. Vocabo Benedictus.
And in that word
(always, our own word is necessary
to brings His truth into play,
His will into action),
he becomes other;
he is no longer one among equals.
The seat is no longer vacant.
And in that word, he is strengthened by fresh grace.
He views the vineyard from
a new position; it is the same
vineyard, requires the same labor, but now
he must lead.
He bears the yoke of Christ anew.
New. He makes all things new.
He makes all things possible, and all things new.
And with our FIAT, He makes us what He calls us to be.
