Does all my effectiveness come from God?
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” Christ, fully aware of our shortcomings, called us to his Church, within our particular circumstances. There are so many worthier people that Christ could have called. Yes, people who are simpler and wiser, more influential and important, more grateful and generous. And yet….
“God usually seeks out deficient instruments so that the work can be seen more clearly to be his.” How reassuring it is to know that it is God, and not our own poor strength, that enables us to do our work for others! This demands a great deal of humility from us, so that we do not place obstacles in the way of grace.
If we do not grow in humility, we will soon lose sight of the reason for our having been chosen by God: that is, to be holy.
“If we are humble, we can understand all the marvels of our divine Christian vocation. The hand of Christ has snatched us from a wheat field; the sower squeezes the handful of wheat in his wounded palm. The blood of Christ bathes the seed, soaking it. Then the Lord tosses the wheat to the winds, so that in dying, it becomes life, and in sinking into the ground, it multiplies.”
This calls for responsibility on our part, since we are not inert instruments, but intelligent and free beings who need to use our minds, hearts, and wills: “The instruments mustn't be left to grow rusty.”
While we have to be eager to improve, to deepen our formation, we should not forget that ours is a supernatural endeavor which goes forward only under God's almighty hand. This consideration should fill us with confidence, especially when we feel incapable of carrying out a task or overcoming an obstacle.
Seeing our own shortcomings is already a grace from God; it helps us grasp more clearly our need to be docile in God's hands. And “since we want to be good instruments, the smaller and the more wretched we see ourselves to be –with true humility– the more our Lord will make up for what we lack.”
“We have to work regularly, despite our shortcomings and errors, trying to overcome them little by little by our interior struggle.” It is God who really does it. Therefore, we have to be united to our Lord in the Eucharist, in prayer, and by responding to his grace.
Nov 25 Tue