A reflection on why we must leave our past behind when we're thinking about our vocation.
The story of the death and resurrection of Jesus is to let us know that God has buried the past and left it behind - it has no place in the future!
At baptism, the image is also of new beginnings - Death and Resurrection - we are given new life through Christ in our baptism.
We are a new Creation
The Gospel of John ends with the restoration of the disciples, (who had run away when Jesus was arrested, and Peter, who had denied Him three times), to their ministries. The past was not to hold them back, even though they couldn't erase it, or ignore it.
Paul never forgot his past persecution of the Church, but it never stopped him preaching the Glory of Christ.
So when we think of our vocation, we are not to let the past stop us.
One particular way the past will try and hold us back, is in the voice that says:
you are not worthy of....
Here is a prayer to help overcome such voices:
Heavenly Father
Forgive those who gave me the voices that say I am not worthy
Forgive me for owning those voices now
Help me to know how you see and value me
That I might follow your calling into your future
Through Jesus my Lord.
Amen