An Active Response to God’s Invitation

Invitations are ordinarily thought as a way of asking courteously. In the context of social invitations, an RSVP is a request for a response from the invited. (The letters come from a French phrase meaning "please respond.”) Upon receiving such an invitation, we are expected to reply as a courtesy. In our busy world we are often remiss in responding, presuming that if we don’t respond, the host will just naturally assume that we are declining the invitation.  We often fail to think that the host might worry that we didn’t receive the invitation.

I spent some time reflecting the other day on how well (or how poorly) I respond to invitations from God.  This enticed me to look at the Latin root of the word invitation. Doing so gave me a more dynamic view of the word, particularly with respect to my relationship with God.

The original definition of the Latin root can mean any of the following: to go directly toward, to go after, to chase, or to hunt. With these phrases in mind, I began to envision Gad coming directly toward me, God going after me, God chasing me God hunting me - with His boundless love.

I ordinarily don’t think of God chasing me or hunting me.  Yet when I imagined Him doing so, I projected on God the type of human response I would have if I cared about having someone so much at an event that I chased after him/her, but could not get any response.

Daily, God invites us to His love and mercy. How will we respond?

 Actively? Through

Renewal, Reconciliation…
                        Service, Simplicity…

                                                Values, Virtues…

                                                            Prayer, Proclamation…?

Or do we dare risk not responding, thereby passively declining God’s invitation?

Jim Gase

Office of Social Ministries and Development