Rite of Election, accepting God's invitation

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

    “Through people like you, the Church is alive,” Bishop McManus told people preparing to become Catholics or to complete their initiation into the Catholic Church.
    He was preaching at the Rite of Election Sunday at St. Paul Cathedral.
    This liturgy is held on the first Sunday of Lent in cathedrals around the world, as part of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
    It is officially called the “Celebration of the Rite of Election of Catechumens and of the Call to Continuing Conversion of Candidates who seek to Complete their Christian Initiation.”
    This year the diocese has 107 catechumens (people who have not been baptized), 42 candidates who were baptized in other churches and are seeking to become Catholic and 67 candidates who were baptized Catholic and are completing their initiation, according to a press release. They come from 45 parish communities and Assumption College’s campus ministry.
    They are preparing to receive the Sacraments of Initiation – baptism, first Communion and/or confirmation – at the Easter Vigil Masses, celebrated the night before Easter Sunday in their parishes.
    At last Sunday’s liturgy the catechumens were called by name, and parish. They inscribed their names in the Book of the Elect and greeted Bishop McManus, who declared them members of the elect.     
    The candidates followed a similar process, without inscribing their names. Bishop McManus said the Act of Recognition over them and they greeted him.
     The context for this celebration was provided by the day’s Scripture readings, Bishop McManus said. He noted that sin entered the world because Adam and Eve rejected their position as creatures, but this was “completely … undone by the obedience of Christ,” who submitted to the Father instead of the devil’s temptations.
    The bishop asked the catechumens and candidates what they think God is calling them to do with their lives.
    Unlike with American elections, “you are not choosing God,” he said. “God has chosen you.” He is always the first to issue the call, whether it’s asking Abraham to leave his homeland, Mary to be the mother of the Savior or catechumens and candidates to repent and believe in the Gospel.
    “God is asking you to surrender your old way of life and to put on Jesus Christ,” he told them. He said God has chosen them to live a life of holiness, and soon some of them will receive Jesus’ body and blood for the first time.
    While God has chosen them, he will never force them to respond, Bishop McManus said. Their presence at the cathedral proclaimed that they are accepting God’s invitation, he added.
    He said God has given them a new way to live in the world, and, through people like them, the Church is alive.