Perfectly Imperfect

Perfectly Imperfect

Nick Vujicic has travelled to more than forty countries spreading a message of hope and love to millions of people. He has gone to prisons, hospitals, Churches, and schools with his inspiring message, a message that has helped to change countless lives (See his website, http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/about-life-without-limbs/). He is the founder of Life Without Limbs Ministry.  Nick was born with a medical condition that has left him without arms or legs. Nick Vujicic has travelled to around the world without arms or legs, spreading a message of hope and love.  He has taken what the world might call a limitation and has turned it into a purpose-driven life; AND He glorifies God through it by spreading the love of Jesus throughout the world!  This is the work of God using “an imperfection” to fulfill His Will in one of His willing children.  He wants to do the same with us!

I’m sure that each of us has in some point in our lives dwelt on our own inadequacies and imperfections.  I’m sure we’ve allowed them to prevent us from doing great things with our lives or allowed them to make us doubt we could.  I know I do. God doesn’t worry about this.  All He really wants from us is to love Him, our families, and our neighbors and for our actions to be motivated by this love. His Love can turn what little things we might do into great things as long as we’ve put great love into them.  The Mass readings from this past Sunday tell us that God has in fact made room for our imperfections in His plan for our lives.  To quote St. Francis DeSales, “Do no lose courage in considering your own imperfections.”

The Gospel reading is from the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat.  When the land owner is asked by the workers about whether to pull the weeds that surround the wheat in the garden, he responds, “No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.”  This response represents the gentleness of God and His willingness to work with our imperfections (especially our sins) to bring forth great fruits in our lives.  A verse from Sunday’s first reading reassures us of this: “For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.”  He is patient with us and does not worry about anything that we might be lacking because His grace makes up a hundredfold for it. 

In addition to His patience, God gives us everything we need to do His Will.  Prayer is our way of reaching Him when we need help.  It is also His way of revealing His Will to us.  He responds to prayer through the Holy Spirit.  Sunday’s second reading says, “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” God knows we need His help to be faithful to Him and helps us through the Holy Spirit.  He also uses another important source of whom I am reminded in Sunday’s Gospel reading.  It reads, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”  This woman reminds me of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.  She is the spouse of the Holy Spirit and is therefore a very important source of assistance in our lives.  While she is not the source of salvation like God (who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), she is very close to Jesus and through her great prayers helps us come closer to Him.  She helps guide us in His ways and points us to her Son.  As any mother would hold her child, Mary holds her Son in her heart and it is from there that she brought Him into the world.  This fact is the inspiration for the name of this blog.  We can and should ask for her prayers in helping us to remain faithful to her Son and better imitate His life. 

            Yes, we all have shortcomings, limitations, and weaknesses.  They are no match for the power of God’s grace and I think this means that we don’t have to worry about them as much.  This sounds much easier than it is to practice it. I still struggle to practice it.  This is one reason I wrote this post.  I hope we can work together to overcome this belief by praying for one another and helping each other to remember this whenever possible.  I would like to close this post with a quote from Nick Vujicic:   “…{F}or God took my life, one that others might disregard as not having any significance and He has filled me with His purpose and showed me His plans to use me to move hearts and lives toward Him.”  By working for it a little every day we can come to know His purpose and with the help of His grace we can fulfill it! Our limitations and imperfections are no match for Him! 

A Special Mission!

We all have a unique role to play in spreading God’s Kingdom on earth.  Each one of us has received from God a unique combination of talents, experiences, sufferings, and relationships. He has prepared each of us for a special mission—a mission that no one else has.  Each of us is very dear to Him and He holds us close to His Most Sacred Heart.  He loves us as His precious children. As we are told in today’s readings, particularly in the Gospel, He has given us what we need to carry out our mission, but He wants us to prepare our hearts for it and lay down the roots that will connect us to Him. To use the language from today’s Gospel reading, He plants a seed in our hearts and we must prepare them in such a way that will enable Him to bring forth a good fruit.  We must do some work and show Him that we are ready for our mission.

Today’s readings offer guidance to help us open our hearts to the seed that He wants to plant.  First we must clear away stuff in our lives that can inhibit the growth of the seed.   We have to identify what prevents us from having a relationship with Him, whether it is a particular attachment, distraction, sin or fear.  It is good to think about things in our lives and discern whether they bring us to a closer relationship with Him or lead us away.  Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”  When we fill our lives with sin and distractions and such, the “soil” in our hearts cannot be rich and fertile but is instead cluttered with “weeds.”  Clearing away the weeds is the beginning of our “yes” to God.

Once we clear out the clutter in our hearts, we need to put out strong roots in the soil that will keep us connected to Him.  We do this by remaining close to Him in prayer and directing our thoughts and actions to Him.  The voice of God tells us in the first reading, “Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats…”“His Word and His Will remain in our hearts until His purpose for our lives is brought to fruition.  If we call to mind everyday His love and grace He will always reveal His Will to us and give us the strength to remain faithful to it.  Calling to mind His Love for us everyday will ensure that we will have an abundance of the “bread” and “seed” spoken of in today’s first reading.

Once we have cleared out the clutter and strengthened the roots that connect our hearts to Him, we must build a fence around the soil so that nothing can destroy the Lord’s planted seed and the roots we’ve extended.  Three things come to mind when I think of this fence that we must build around our hearts: virtue, patience, and perseverance.  The same stuff that we cleared out before we extended our roots is the same stuff that we must keep outside of our fence.  The fence must be grounded in virtue so that it will not collapse.  We must be steadfast in our commitment to lead a good and holy life and willing to reject whatever can destroy our relationship with God.  We must desire to always do what is good and reject evil, even when life gets tough.  Because this is no easy task, we can always ask God for the grace of perseverance.  St. Paul, in today’s second reading, reminds us that God wants to shower us with His grace and glory and to one day share in that glory for eternity.  He writes, “For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God…” He writes about suffering, saying that He counts it as nothing compared with the glory that God wants to reveal to us.  Suffering is a particularly strong weed that can wreak havoc on our hearts.  We fight its harmful effects with patience and perseverance in our faith lives.  He wants us to keep focused on Him and not the things of this world. 

Let us remember today that we are not alone in any of our life experiences.  We have a Good God who loves us dearly and desires nothing bad to happen to us.  We also have each other. We should help one another to carry out our missions in this life.  We should ask God to help us by giving us guidance and strength to remain faithful to our missions.  When we think we don’t have the strength to do what He asks, we should ask Him to fulfill this work in us.  In other words, give Him the reins.  He wants us to make His glory known to all people, but doesn’t want to do it alone.  He wants us to work with Him.  Are you ready for the challenge?