In today’s readings, Isaiah is called by God to be God’s prophet. In the Gospel, Jesus calls Simon Peter, James and John to be his disciples. As we listen to both accounts, those who are called by God become fearful. It is not because Isaiah was scared of God, or that Simon Peter, James and John were frightened by Jesus. What scared them? In God’s light, they beheld their own sinfulness. They became clearly aware of their shortcomings, and their inadequacies as human beings.
This is not isolated to those “holy people” from the past. This is something that is consistent with all who have felt called to serve God. I remember weeks before my ordination to the Permanent Diaconate, the major question that I pondered very seriously was whether I was worthy enough to be ordained to serve God and the Church. Deeply aware of my own shortcomings and knowing that they were not going to be erased magically by the Archbishop’s laying of hands, was I worthy to be a servant of Christ in the Church? I reflected on a portion of St Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians in which he writes about a “thorn in the flesh” he wished God to take from him. The Lord replied to St Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” St Paul concludes, “I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses,in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ;for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor: 9-10). What ended up most important to me was not whether I was worthy enough to be ordained. Rather, in spite of my weaknesses, God deemed me worthy enough to be ordained.
You and I were not perfect when God called us at our baptism. God calls us just as we are. Like Isaiah, Peter, James, John, and Paul, we seek to serve God, well aware of our own brokenness. Let not our own sinfulness get in the way of our serving God and serving those whom called God has called us to serve. Rather, may we come to realize that which was spoken to St Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
