Homily | July 11, 2026 | God Invites, Grace Purifies, And We Respond | (Episode 193)

There's a pattern that appears over and over again in the Bible whenever God calls someone to a great mission.

First comes an encounter with God.

Then comes an awareness of one's own weakness.

Then comes God's grace.

And finally, the mission.

We see that exact pattern in today's first reading.

Isaiah enters the temple and suddenly heaven is open before him.

He sees the Lord seated upon his throne.

The seraphim cry out holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

Notice they do not say love, love, love.

God is love, of course, but before we can understand his love, we must first understand his holiness.

Holiness means that God is utterly unlike us, infinite, perfect, majestic, completely pure.

The closer Isaiah comes to that holiness, the more aware he becomes of himself.

He doesn't say, What a wonderful prophet I am.

No, he says, Woe is me, I am doomed, for I am a man of unclean lips.

That's always a mark of authentic holiness.

The saints never became more impressed with themselves.

No, they became more aware of God's greatness.

The closer they came to the light, the more clearly they were able to see.

That's why humility is not thinking poorly of yourself.

Humility is seeing yourself truthfully before God.

Then comes one of the very beautiful moment in the scriptures.

A seraphant takes a burning ember from the altar and touches Isaiah's lips.

Imagine that.

The very lips Isaiah believed made him unworthy become the place where God begins his healing.

God does not ignore Isaiah's weakness, he transforms it.

And only after Isaiah has been purified does God ask, Whom shall I send?

Notice something remarkable.

God does not force anyone, he invites.

And Isaiah freely answers, Here am I, send me.

Those four words have changed history.

Every vocation begins there.

Every priest, every religious sister, every missionary, every husband, every wife, every Christian disciple says, Here I am.

Not because I'm perfect, not because I have all the answers or everything figured out, but because I trust the one who is sending me.

And that brings us beautifully to today's feast day, the memorial of Saint Benedict, Benedict of Nursia.

When Benedict looked at the collapse of the Roman world around him, he did not complain about the darkness.

He himself became a light.

He did not try to save civilization through politics or power, no, he sought holiness.

He built communities centered on prayer, on work, on discipline and the worship of God.

His famous motto was simple Oda et labora, pray and work.

He understood something we often forget.

The world is changed not first by great speeches, but by holy lives.

Europe was rebuilt not because Benedict organized a movement, it was rebuilt because thousands of ordinary monks quietly live the gospel day after day.

History is often changed by people no one notices.

Then Jesus says something three different times in the gospel.

Do not be afraid.

Whenever God repeats himself, we should pay attention.

Fear is one of Satan's greatest weapons.

Fear keeps people from forgiving.

Fear keeps people from discerning a vocation, from speaking about Christ.

Fear keeps people from becoming the saints God created them to be.

Jesus does not promise that we will avoid suffering.

He promises something greater, that the Father knows us intimately.

Even all the hairs on your head are counted.

Think about that.

God knows things about you that you do not even know about yourself.

If he cares about something as small as a sparrow, how much more does he care about you?

So why be afraid?

Well, perhaps this is the lesson for us today as we wrap up this week.

Beautiful lesson with the life of Saint Benedict.

The world does not need more anxious Christians.

It needs more holy Christians.

Men and women who have encountered God, who know their own weakness, who have allowed his grace to purify them, and who are no longer afraid to say, Here I am, Lord, send me.

That's how Isaiah changed Israel.

That's how Saint Benedict changed Europe.

And that is still how Christ changes the world, one faithful Christian at a time.

Amen.