“This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength and knows compassion.” —Dr. Abraham Erskine, Captain America: The First Avenger
Strength and courage are beautiful virtues and gifts from God that many people long for. They are also very important virtues when living out God’s plan for us. However, people like me struggle to see these virtues as attainable because of their small and timid nature. However, as we learn through the countless stories in the Bible, it is those that are the smallest that God is able to use to do the greatest things.
St. Therese of Lisieux is one of my favorite saints because she felt her smallness could be overcome by following her little way to Heaven. This path to holiness has been one of the cornerstones of my faith journey for the past 15 years. I am thankful to have learned and gravitated toward her story at such a young age so that I could form the relationship with God that I have today. She is one of the most popular saints as many people can relate to her feeling of littleness and want to learn how to be a great saint despite their smallness.
On the other hand, one saint I have never felt a strong connection to is St. Joan of Arc. St. Joan of Arc is a saint that you think of that did not serve God in small little ways but through huge acts of courage and strength. She started to feel a calling by the age of sixteen to rescue the city of Orleans from the English. She not only felt this great calling from God, but had the courage and strength to follow through on this calling. Many times, I can look at saints of great courage and think ‘wow that is amazing God used an awesome person He created to do an amazing thing, I wish I was as awesome of a person so I could do great things too.’ The thing is though, Joan’s great calling was not too far out of the ordinary. And God did not create her with gifts that are far greater than mine. The difference was her trust in God to use those gifts to get out of her comfort zone and do amazing things.
Joan grew up in the 15th century in a peasant family. She never learned to read or write but only common skills of women at the time. Even though she knew her calling from God was clear, people around her disbelieved in her calling from God and treated her with disrespect due to her gender. She started to have disbelief in her own ability to follow God’s will and said “I am a poor girl, I do not know how to ride or fight.”
“I am a poor girl, I do not know how to ride or fight.”-St. Joan of Arc
“I do not know how to speak. I am too young.” Jeremiah 1:6
“I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.” -Moses, Exodus 4:10
Do these thoughts sound familiar? They sure do to me. They are the same thoughts that I had that made me think I could never relate to such a great saint as St. Joan of Arc when in fact she told God the same thing. Sometimes we belittle ourselves to so small of a person that we think we are incapable of doing great things. However as the entire Old Testament shows us over and over again that it is through the smallest people that God makes the greatest things happen.
God could easily use the biggest, strongest, and smartest people to fulfill His plans, but many times it is exactly those people that give credit to their own talents instead of God who gave them those gifts. When Abraham and Sarah conceived in old age, there was no doubt that it was through the power of God that Isaac was born. When David defeated Goliath with only five small stones and no armor, there was no doubt that God was on his side and provided the victory. When God used a peasant girl to save France, there was no doubt that it was through God that she was successful. Even though they did not have the skills the world expected they needed to win the victory they did have something else. They had faith and courage and let God provide for the rest.
When we think of courage many times we think of heroes like the avengers that have great strength, wit, or powers to allow them to overcome the impossible. However, courage has nothing to do with those things. On the contrary courage means “the ability to do something that frightens one” and “strength in the face of pain or grief” (Oxford Languages).
God does not call us to do great things because we are equipped for them. Instead, He calls us to do the very things that frighten us the most because He knows that is an opportunity to put our trust in Him completely knowing we are not able to succeed on our own.
St. Joan was able to discern God’s mission for her and had the ability to follow through because of her faith and courage in God. What mission is God calling us to do despite our fears? If we really asked God what big thing He wants us to do, could we say yes? Spend some time with God in prayer and ask him for the courage to say yes to His mission for us in our life despite our biggest fears and weaknesses. Remember, courage is not that we have the strength to do all things, but that we have the faith to trust in God to do all things through us despite our fears and shortcomings.
St. Joan of Arc, pray for us.
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