GOD DOES NOT CALL THE QUALIFIED

 

                            Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11

 

The statement that God does not call the qualified but qualifies the called is one of the familiar words we find in the Bible (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Some of the places in the Bible where we find this statement practically demonstrated are in the three readings of this fifth Sunday. In the first reading, God called and commissioned the prophet Isaiah for his mission despite Isaiah’s admission of his unpreparedness, inadequacy and unworthiness to be a representative of God (Isaiah 6:5-8). In the second reading, we are presented with the example of the apostle Paul who was called and used by God to spread the message of the gospel despite his unworthiness to be called an apostle as he was a persecutor of Christians (1 Corinthians 15:8-11). Then in the gospel reading, Jesus called Peter to follow him and even made him the chief of the apostles despite Peter’s admission of his sinfulness (Luke 5:8:11).

Never in the Bible did God only call on perfect people to spread his love, neither did he once deem anyone too broken to receive his love. None of us but God is perfect. The call of Isaiah, Paul and Peter teaches us that God uses broken, sinful, and unqualified human instruments like you and I, to fulfill the divine purposes and to accomplish things far beyond our human imagination. God does not need us to be perfect. He only needs us to be ready and willing to serve him and to be used by him. We do not need to have our lives together to be used by God. We simply have to be ready to serve when he calls us and to respond like Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). If we wait until we are perfect/ qualified or until we have all the resources in the world to be used by God, we may never be used by him or perform any good work.

Isaiah, Paul and Peter were open and ready to recognize, admit and confess their unworthiness and imperfections before God. Isaiah said “Woe is me! For I am doomed; for I am a man of unclean lips.” Paul said he was the abnormally born; the least of the apostles and one undeserving of the name apostle because he persecuted the Church of God. Peter called himself a sinful man. Their attitude challenges all of us especially in our time when we rarely take note of nor admit our sinfulness and imperfections before God. God knows our imperfections and brokenness. He knows even our dark sides. Therefore, if we continue to keep our wounds of sinfulness and brokenness covered before God, we will not receive the healing we need. The wounds will rather fester.

Dear friend, our today’s liturgy reminds us that like Isaiah, Paul and Peter, we too are never too broken, too unqualified, too young, too old, or too imperfect to be used by God. Stop waiting until you think you are qualified, and let God make you qualified. Allow God to use you, and be ready when he calls. The attitude of Peter when he let down the nets at the Lord’s command teaches us that being called to follow God also entails being obedient to the Lord’s instruction even when his instructions and biddings make no sense to us. Be ready to answer the Lord’s call and be obedient to his commands as well. You may not know where God is leading you or understand why things are not working according to your plans but you have to always trust the process. At the end, there will be a great catch of the fish, signifying surplus and an abundance of God’s blessings in your life.