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One of the major
reasons we say “No” to God’s call is that we believe we are not good
enough. Like Isaiah who describes himself as “a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips” or Peter at Jesus knees
saying “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” our first
reaction is that we are unworthy of God’s notice. We know, without
even thinking about the particulars, that we are sinful and weaker
than we want to admit. Though we try to hide this from others and
ourselves, we know we cannot hide it from God. It isn’t so much that
we don’t want to say “yes” to God, rather we doubt ourselves and
even find it hard to imagine God would call us.
But look at the people God calls in the bible. We see today Isaiah.
He saw that he was guilty of the very things he found God was
calling him to prophesy against. He experienced God’s healing
through the image of an ember to his lips. But note that it is God
who heals. It’s not about Isaiah’s power. Peter is a fisherman who
describes himself as sinful. Jesus doesn’t tell him to get himself
in good religious shape first but simply say, “Follow me.” In fact
almost nowhere in the Bible does God call someone because they are
already holy and worthy. The Jewish religious leaders are not the
people Jesus chooses but more often those he opposes. When Jesus
says, “I have come to call sinners,” he means he is calling sinners
like you and me.
Oddly people who are good and holy on their own are not called by
God. “There’s more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner
than over ninety-nine righteous people.” This doesn’t seem to make
sense. The problem is that people cannot make themselves good and
holy, they can only look like they have. Only God can transform a
person. This transformation comes not from our self control but by
our saying “Yes” and following God.
Another major reason we say “No” is because we don’t know enough
about our faith. We’re not trained like priest, sisters,
theologians, and the like. But faith isn’t primarily about
knowledge. We try to frequently remind parents that just sending
your children to a Catholic school or to PSR is not sufficient for
sharing our faith. Knowledge is good and important but it’s not the
same as faith. In fact impressing people by how much we know and
having all the answers (or pious platitudes) for our children often
inhibits the spread of the faith. Again that is more about our power
(of intellect) than about faith.
Sharing the faith is not about telling someone how well we live our
life well and how we’ve found all the answers we need. This is false
even if we are successful in fooling ourselves. Faith is about our
relationship with God and how we struggle in our sin to be able to
really believe all that God has told us. It is hard for us to
believe that God really loves us no matter what. We don’t easily
believe that God really loves us even when we do bad things.
Sometimes it is hard for us to experience God’s presence. There are
times we just don’t understand God and God even seems unfair.
These kinds of questions may sound like those of someone losing
their faith. However they are questions we all need to address as we
grow in faith. When we give the impression that we have all the
answers and tell others they shouldn’t ask such things but just have
faith, we drive people away. This is often the flaw in our efforts
to pass on our faith to our children. We turn children away by
ignoring their real struggle and instead try to give them the right
answers which usually are pious platitudes. Faith becomes unreal as
we just ignore the real struggles and pretend all is well. But
sharing our journey of faith and our own struggles to come to know
who God really is are the best ways to share our faith.
Notice this has little to do with how much we know or is it about
our own righteousness. It is more about an honest opening of our
hearts to another and sharing our relationship with God. When Jesus
calls us to follow him, he is not looking for just those who have
the self-discipline to make themselves appear holy, those who have
blind faith, or think they have all the answers. He is calling us
sinners. He is not looking for people who can impress others by what
they can do or what they know. He is looking for people willing to
rely on God’s power instead of their own.
We are being called. Not because we are so righteous and not because
we know so much. We are being invited to learn of God’s love and
power in our lives. We are invited to follow, to walk a journey of
faith. We share our faith by sharing with others our journey. We are
called to bring the good news to others. Let us choose to say “Yes.” |
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