History is filled with stories about innovations that were not the result of what was originally intended. Chocolate chip cookies were the result of chocolate chunks that failed to melt into the cookie dough. Instead of the chocolate cookies for which the baker had hoped, she – and we – got chocolate chip cookies.
A scientist at 3M was trying to create a stronger adhesive, but the one he developed wasn’t adhering as he had hoped. However, when the mixture was applied to paper, the paper could be peeled off one surface and repeatedly applied elsewhere. Eventually, others at 3M saw a use for the product – and the Post-it note became a staple in offices throughout the world.
Sometimes, things that result from what was not intended can point us toward something better. Chocolate chip cookies are delicious and my favorite kind of cookie. Post-it notes improved efficiency in the workplace. I use them all the time for reminders of tasks that need to be done. We appreciate having both products.
The path to holiness and goodness can be like that. When we must grapple with a weakness or a failure, or when we’re dealing with something that is difficult or frustrating because it isn’t going the way we intended, the outcome might be better than we ever imagined – although it might take a while for us to recognize where God is leading us.
God uses our flaws and weaknesses to point us toward holiness. As St. Paul writes, “… transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Rom 5:20). In other words, where sin abounds, grace abounds more. God makes use of that and points us toward holiness.
This Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles. Within the Church’s lives of the saints, we find several whose early years were far from the path to holiness they eventually followed, e.g., St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Augustine. However, the best known and most powerful examples of who they were and who they became are Sts. Peter and Paul.
St. Peter’s great failure was his emphatic denial of knowing and following Jesus, which is noted in each of the four Gospels. But he reconciled with Jesus, and Our Lord never lost confidence in this mercurial apostle whom he chose to lead the Church (Jn 21:15-19).
St. Paul’s greatest flaw was his zeal against the Church: “Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment” (Acts 8:3).
As he did with Peter, Jesus had plans for Paul. The latter was on his way to Damascus to continue persecuting Christians (Acts 9:1-2) but Our Lord intervened. He rerouted Paul in a powerfully spiritual way and, using the saint’s zeal for something positive, put him on the path to holiness. Not only did Paul not expect this outcome during his trip, neither did the apostles (Acts 9:26-29) who were anticipating that his violent ways would continue.
If highly esteemed Christians are going to have flaws, we can understand that everyone will have flaws and weaknesses, but in those weaknesses, their greatest potential lies in overcoming them. Our Lord uses those flaws in pointing us toward holiness and goodness. Through those weaknesses, we are connected with Christ to experience his grace in that conversion.
Accepting God’s plans for us will likely not have the drama of Peter’s denial and reconciliation, nor Paul’s extraordinary conversion from persecutor of the faithful to proclaimer of the Gospel, but they will change us just as they were changed.
In his first encyclical, “The Light of Faith,” Pope Francis wrote of Paul’s conversion: “To speak of faith often involves speaking of painful testing, yet it is precisely in such testing that Paul sees the most convincing proclamation of the Gospel, for it is in weakness and suffering that we discover God’s power which triumphs over our weakness and suffering. [Emphasis added] The apostle himself experienced a dying which would become life for Christians” (cf. 2 Cor 4:7-12). (Lumen Fidei, 56.)
As we honor Sts. Peter and Paul this Sunday, consider the opportunities for conversion in your life. Know that God recognizes your flaws, is there with you in your weakest, most difficult moments, and uses them to bring you closer to him.