“In some way all people are God’s servants. All serve the same end. The irony of fate, or better said, God’s humor, arranges that those who resist him most often serve him best.”
— Father Wilfrid Stinissen, “Into Your Hands, Father”
I have to confess that this quote sent me over the edge for a bit.
If those who act against God can serve Him so well, then why do I try so hard? If I would do a better job of serving God by just doing whatever I want, what’s the deal with all the effort to love people who drive me nuts, to give of time, talent and treasure with as much generosity as I can muster, and to hang in there when I’d rather get the heck out of Dodge, er, Rockford?
Finally, after praying for a truckload of graces, I realized that if I focus on Father Stinissen’s point without my agenda and ego, then what he says is a wonderful thing. How awesome it is that God can make good use of bad people!
God is so much more than His creation. His will is so wide and deep and high — so beyond our ability to derail — that He can allow people to do evil and use them to His greater purpose.
So, what is the difference between God’s servants who consciously serve Him and those who deliberately work against Him but end up serving Him, maybe even better? And what about everyone in between?
For one thing, each one’s level of happiness will be different.
Those of us who seek to do God’s work already experience happiness and joy when we can tell that God used our efforts. We are greatly relieved to discover that He can do His work through us even when we mess up. We will be ecstatic someday when God acknowledges and even honors our service to Him.
People who go their own way without much thought of God but who do act out of their own good will should be pleasantly surprised and pleased at some point when they discover that they unknowingly were of service to the God they never got to know, the One who is Lord of all.
Others — those who operate in the world with only themselves in mind, using people to get what they want without deliberately seeking to destroy anyone — will be completely embarrassed about their self-centeredness at the end. It’s hard to say more, except to note that God is both just and merciful.
But those who embrace evil will not fare well when they discover that their ungodly actions served God’s will. The only conclusions that I can surmise are: they will be furious, and God’s ability to make good use of their evil actions and intentions will only increase their never-ending misery.
Another difference comes before that future time of revelations: when God’s servants experience the Bible verse that says God makes all things work for the good of those who love Him.
By and large our personal experiences of this verse will involve people whom God uses to make His servants holy.
“In many lives of the saints, we read about some difficult or even evil person who provides the amount of persecution that seems necessary to make someone a saint,” Father Stinissen says, echoing thoughts of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
He quotes St. John’s words to brand-new Carmelites about what to expect in their religious communities. These instructions can apply to our workplaces, our parishes, our households and schools.
“The first precaution is to understand that you have come to the monastery so that all may fashion and try you,” St. John says. He notes that, in order to “draw profit from every occurrence, you should think that all in the community are artisans … present there in order to prove you” with their words, deeds, and thoughts against you.
St. Teresa and Father Stinissen claim that we eventually will love our personal persecutors, and even be grateful for the distress and difficulties they caused us.
In the end, God’s servants can trust that they will benefit from all things and people — even when God needs to work for our good through the actions of those who are not so good.