We Are Known
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”Jeremiah 1:5
For those of us who are familiar with the old Baltimore Catechism, we know by memorization the answer to the question, “Why did God make you?” “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.” There is a certain logic to this. In order to sacrifice one’s self or to serve another, we must love the other. And in order to love another, we first must know them. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us we cannot love that which we do not know. So, for us, in order to really be a faithful Christian, we must love Christ and in order to love Christ we must come to know Him. This is the same for God. Since He is love, and it was out of love that He created us, He already knows us. We are known by God.
The Call of Jeremiah is one of the most beautiful passages in the Old Testament. The Lord assures Jeremiah that He knew Him before He even formed Him in his mother’s womb. God loved us even before we came into existence and into this world. And it was in loving us that we were formed, and we were formed for a special purpose and mission. Later in the call narrative, the Lord tells Jeremiah to not shy away because he feels he is too young. Our purpose does not magically come once we become an adult. Our purpose has been woven into the very fabric of our being when God formed us, and God never changes His mind. We have always been called, and no matter how much we mess up or how unworthy we feel, God does not stop calling us. He doesn’t stop calling us because our call is part of who we are, and since God has known us from all eternity, He will never forsake us, for we were created out of His love.
Brothers and sisters, we are known by God. Sometimes we may feel small and that God does not have time for us, but that’s not the case. God knows us and loves us, and He has called us each by name for a special purpose; He has created us for love and has called us to love. We are known and we are loved, brothers and sisters. Never doubt that.
