Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

In our gospel reading for this weekend, Jesus calls his twelve Apostles together and sends them out on a mission. This reminds me of a fictional letter addressed to Jesus Christ from a management consultant about the twelve candidates Jesus had chosen to be leaders among his disciples. The letter goes like this:

“Dear Sir:

“Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men that you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have taken our full battery of tests. We have analyzed the results, and each candidate has been interviewed by our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant. It is our opinion that most of your candidates are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for your enterprise. They have no team concept.

“Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities for leadership. The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas shows a skeptical attitude that would tend to undermine morale. Matthew has been blacklisted by the Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings.

“One of the candidates, however, shows real potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness; he meets people well and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.”

Ugh! That final paragraph gives me the creeps. The whole letter, even though it’s fictional, does refer to some qualities that we might see indicated in some of the Scriptures. Unlikely candidates, for sure. If you (like me!) are fans of “The Chosen,” you can recognize some of these qualities in the way the Apostles are portrayed in the show.They are human beings, after all.

As the saying goes: “God does not choose those who are qualified; he qualifies those whom he chooses.”

For us, the message is twofold. First, we should not shy away from doing God’s work because of our shortcomings.God can use all of us as instruments for his work. Second, we should be careful not to judge others as unsuitable for God’s work either.God knows them better than we do. “The Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)

Blessings,

Fr. Philip