“We must not neglect anything that could help us to reach the goal of the efforts that God has placed in our hands, but always on condition that we also know how to accept failure with serenity and meekness” (St. Francis de Sales).
Our Father calls us to the responsibility of doing everything in our power so that the mission He has entrusted to us may be successful. It is an appeal to our will and understanding to use with zeal the gifts and talents that God has given us for this purpose.
At the same time, it is important to realize that in the end it is our Father who will carry out the work in which He has called us to cooperate. “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” the Lord tells His disciples (Jn 15:16). This certainty frees us from a certain tension that can arise from believing that everything depends on our efforts and our will, and reminds us that we are God’s collaborators and not His “foremen”.
Failures – or those circumstances and events that we interpret as such – are what St. Francis de Sales wants us to take advantage of for our spiritual formation. Precisely because we are at the service of the Lord, we must also be able to accept setbacks or efforts that seem to have had no result. When we have done everything in our power, we must submit ourselves and our ministry to the Lord, knowing that He will do everything according to His plans and will use all circumstances, however adverse, to bring them to fulfillment in His wisdom. Not infrequently, our Father comforts us with the assurance that He judges supposed failure differently than we do.