God Doesn’t Call the Qualified—He Qualifies the Called

Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for although You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, You have revealed them to the childlike.”

This short portion of our Gospel reading does a great job of encapsulating both of today’s readings. In our reading from Exodus, God spoke to Moses from a burning bush on Mount Horeb and called him to lead His people out of the slavery and oppression they were suffering in Egypt at the hands of Pharaoh.

We know that Moses was born in Egypt. To save him from Pharaoh’s order to kill all Hebrew boys at birth, his mother put him in a basket and placed it in the river. She hoped someone would find him, have pity on him, and take him in. When Pharaoh’s daughter was at the river bathing, one of her maids found Moses in the basket floating near the riverbank. Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and raised him as her own. When he grew up, Moses observed how badly the Hebrew people were treated, and fled Egypt after he killed an Egyptian who had struck a Hebrew. After his escape, he became a shepherd in the land of Midian.

His encounter with God in the burning bush took place many years after he left Egypt. By this time, things were going pretty well for Moses. He had settled in among the people of Midian, was married, and had a son. Being called by God to go back to Egypt and convince Pharaoh to let the children of Israel leave was not in his plans. When God called, Moses responded, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He didn’t want to do it. This was way out of his comfort zone, even though God assured him that He would be with him.

If we look just one chapter ahead in Genesis, chapter 4, we see that Moses tried his best to talk God out of it. He said, “Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor recently, nor now, but I am slow of speech and tongue.” Moses was scared—rightfully so—and didn’t feel qualified to take on such an epic mission, even if it was in the service of God.

But what Moses failed to understand, as we do when God calls us to serve Him, is that God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies those He calls. Moses knew he wasn’t up to the task—he wasn’t qualified—and he should have been scared. The mission God was giving him was impossible, not just for him, but for any man. There was no way Pharaoh, the most powerful person in the world, would release those who were slaving away building projects that glorified him.

However, while we all know that nothing is impossible for God, we usually fail to recognize that often He accomplishes the impossible through us! Through humility and obedience to God, we are drawn to Him and come to trust Him fully, surrendering ourselves—body, mind, and soul—to His holy will. As He did with Moses, through the faith, hope, and love that He has placed in our hearts, if we cooperate with Him, God can use our meager abilities to do anything.

Today, God is calling us to follow Him, just as He did Moses so long ago—not with blind faith, but with the beautiful childlike faith Jesus speaks of in the Gospel. The kind of faith that encourages us to trust God and give Him everything we are, everything we can be, and everything we have ever been—both the good and the bad. Allowing God to form us into the servants He desires us to become, moving us to achieve things that we could never be capable of. Things that can only be accomplished in God, with God, and through God.

Brothers and sisters, as children of God the Father, let us make Jesus, who is God the Son, the focal point of our life, because He is our Savior, our Brother, our Redeemer, and the most important person we will ever know. Let us strive every day, in all we do, to give ourselves to the Lord, so that when He calls, we will freely give Him our “Yes” and go forth doing great things in service to Him, His people, and His Church. Jesus Himself tells us in John chapter 14, verse 12:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.”

Speaking of God doing great things through His faithful servants—today, the Church remembers the appearance of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to St. Simon Stock in 1251. Tradition holds that the Blessed Virgin gave the Brown Scapular to St. Simon Stock as he prayed to Her for intercession to help his oppressed order, the Carmelites. The scapular is a sign of the “yoke of Christ,” encouraging the wearer to follow Christ’s teachings.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!
St. Simon Stock, pray for us!