The first reading is very close to me, I chose this reading passage for the thank you cards for my ordination as a transitional deacon because the message resonated with my vocational life.  When I went to the seminary, I did not think I was going to last for more than a couple of weeks. I only went because I had told the vocational director at the beginning of the summer that I would go, and then at the end of summer I had changed my mind, but the astute vocation director made me feel guilty and said “We have saved a space for you. And we did not give it to another.  So just come for a semester to see if this for you.”  So, I went thinking I was going to stay just a couple of months and then clearly say to the vocational director that I had done my part and I was going to go back home.  Even one family member did not think I was going to make it that far, that person (who shall not be named) said “I give you a month, and you will come back home.”  Just to prove this person wrong, I said to myself “I will be there one month, and one day and then I will come back.”  I never thought I was going to be there for the long term.  I tried to play the system.  I tried to dupe God by saying,“ I’ll go there but I am not going to stay there for long.”  I thought I was duping God, but it was God who was duping me, and I let him do that.  As time passed, I was saying ‘Well, maybe just another semester” and then “Well, maybe just one more year.”  I was being duped all along, and I wanted to be duped.  My vocation story is not of angels coming from on high with the trumpet blast.  I did not have a mystical experience.  On the other hand, I was not pressured at all by any family member to become a priest.  My mother did not tell me go to the seminary. In fact, she was sad for a long time, and even one person said, “You should come back home, and take care of your mother.” One day, I was frustrated with the seminary life and so I came home, and I complained to my mother, and said to her I wanted to drop out of the seminary, she said “Oh no, now you go back!” I thought she would be happy to have me back at home but now she realized God had a higher calling.  All of this is what I call the duping process of God.  God was slowly convincing me this was the plan.  I was falling for God ever so slowly.  My calling was becoming stronger.  I have said this before what really cemented my call was my pastoral year in Risen Christ Catholic Church in Southwest Boise. It was there that God did the final convincing, the final touches of his conquest.  The hospitality and the acceptance I experience in this parish at that time was the turning point for my vocation. I was no longer dragging my feet, now I wanted to finish the race. It took about six years of discernment before I said yes to God.  Many wonderful experiences happened as a strategy for God duping me into acceptance, and again I let my self be duped. God triumphed over my resistance. And now God has me here to speak against violence, even if I am mocked by the world. My heart is aflame burning with the fire of His love, to proclaim his wonders to the world.  I have lost my life to the love of God, so I may experience the Father’s glory in heaven through the carrying of the cross.  We all have our calling.   May we all grow in our relationship with God, allow ourselves  to be duped by His love so we can give our lives to the service of others. Then we will all be given a recompense according to our good conduct, the glory of heaven.