Inglorious Bastards

First thing.  The title of this blog doesn't have anything to do with Quentin Tarrantino movie.  What I will be writing about his how God chooses the most unlikely characters to fulfill his designs.

The most difficult part of my spiritual journey is coming to terms with my weakness.  Almost daily I fall short and can't get myself to do "the next right thing." St. Paul speaks about this poignantly in his letter to the Romans as he reflects, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."  Usually when I would mess up I would get down on myself, but the more I prayed and read the lives of the saints the more I realized that God could use my weakness for good.  In my previous post I wrote about hope, about how one should trust in God's providence.  This hope is based on the fact that God is faithful and will fulfill his promises as long as one is faithful to the end. St. Paul writes again, "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."  

That brings me to my point about how God chooses the least qualified to accomplish his deeds. Here is a brief list of God's unique characters:

1. St. Peter.  St. Peter denied Jesus three times during his crucifixion, but later went on to become the first pope.
2. King David.  King David committed adultery and organized the murder of an innocent man, but later on became a great leader, a "man after God's heart."
3. St. Mary of Egypt. St. Mary was a prostitute who seduced many men, but later on repented and became a great saint.
4. St. Augustine.  Augustine was a hedonistic womanizer and fathered a child out of wedlock, but later on became one of the most influential doctors of the Church.
5. Blessed Bartolo Longo. Longo was a satanic priest who later repented and became a Dominican tertiary who helped build the basilica of Our Lady of The Rosary in Pompeii Italy.
6. Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute who helped Joshua and his spies who later became one of the ancestors of Jesus.

The truth is that God writes straight with crooked lines.  Poet Charles Peguy speaks about this reality in his poem, The Portal of the Mystery of Hope:

"If it were from limpid days that she made limpid days. If it were with souls, with clear water that she made her springs. From clear water that she made clear water. If it were from pure souls that she made pure souls, Heavens, that would be nothing. Anyone could do as much. And there wouldn't be any secret to it.
 But it's from sullied water, old water, stale water. But it's from an impure soul that she makes a pure soul and  that's the most beautiful secret in the whole garden of the world."