God Makes Men What They Are

Readings for Tuesday September 7, 2010

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 149
Gospel: Luke 6:12-19


Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (Lk. 6:12-16)

My favorite movie is Braveheart; and one of the great lines in that movie is "God makes men what they are." This is a great line because of its wisdom and truth. Greatness is not achieved by anything that we do, but rather it all comes from God. All we can do is choose whether or not we are going to cooperate with God in achieving this greatness.

In today's gospel, we read about the twelve apostles. To many this may seem like the Bible's account of the men who were listed as apostles. While this is certainly true, I think that this list calls us to reflect on something else. Jesus chose to make these men apostles, they did not attain this on their own. And we know that the ones who cooperated with God's plan for their life went on to become great men of God. Eleven chose to cooperate, one decided to do things his own way. We know that Judas Iscariot chose not to cooperate with God's plan, but rather betray his Lord. He had the same chance that the other eleven did, but by going it his own way, he did not achieve greatness, but rather destruction.

The Lord chose a bunch of nobodies to be the apostles of His Church, these were fishermen and tax collectors. They were not scholars or religious leaders, but even still He made them great. The reality is that we each have this same chance at greatness, if we are willing to trust in the Lord and cooperate with His plan. We must always remember, "God makes men what they are" ... all we can do is choose how we cooperate with God.

Father above, we thank you and praise you for the gift of this day. Lord, we thank you and praise you for our lives. Lord, help us to be good stewards of all that you give us. Lord, increase our faith so that we may say yes to you every day of our lives. Lord, you plan for us is perfect, help us never to forget this. Lord, you are our rock and our salvation, help us never to stray from your path. We pray for all of our brothers and sisters who have fallen away from the Church, may their eyes be opened and may they come back into your arms. We ask this all through Christ our Lord. Amen.