The fisher of men needs patience when the results are slow in coming. He needs it when there is not the incentive of natural eagerness to deal with crowds, and all he can do is sit with his rod and line watching for a bite. But perhaps most of all patience is required when he is what he considers a failure. "Master, we have labored all the whole night and have caught nothing." What possible use can it be to go on trying?
Who knows, except God, what is failure and what is success? What is the explanation of extraordinary and unexpected conversions, sometimes at the eleventh hour after a life of sin? A woman came in tears to the Cure of Ars; her husband had committed suicide. Surely his soul was lost? "No," the saint assured her. "He has saved his soul." "But, Father, he threw himself into the river." "Between the time he threw himself from the bridge and touched the surface of the water, he made an act of perfect contrition. He will be a long time in purgatory, but he has saved his soul."
How account for such extraordinary graces? Is it not fair to suggest that they are due to efforts in the apostolate that are often deemed failures? You see no result. You pray for the conversion of a hardened sinner in New York or Chicago, you do penance for him, you visit him and try to induce him to see a priest. But he receives all your efforts with scorn, perhaps with anger. He orders you out, bids you never again darken his door, and dies in his sins. Suppose even the very worst; suppose he has actually lost his soul.
Or it may be some girl you have rescued from a life of sin. She makes good and gives fair promise. But a letter in today's mail tells you she has flung all her promises to the winds and has gone back to her sinful haunts and evil companions. Again let us suppose the worst; suppose she dies impenitent and is buried in hell.
Finally, you may consider yourself a failure because of lack of talents or opportunity. You hear of the appalling prevalence of sin on all sides, but, somehow, you do not seem to be able to do anything about it. You are shy and diffident and timid of appearing much in public. You know it would nearly choke you to go and visit the homes of those in spiritual need and talk to them about returning to the practice of their religion.
Now, in all such cases, it is impossible to pronounce the sentence of failure on the fisher of men. It is vastly comforting to remember that whatever is done with the pure intention Of pleasing God has a value intrinsic to itself, quite independent of the results that appear exteriorly. When you prayed and did. penance for sinners and tried according to your opportunities to work for them, all this became highly meritorious at the moment it was done. Even though it meet only with resistance and obstinacy on the part of those you would wish to benefit, it is very far indeed from being a failure. It is pleasing to God and a success in His sight merely by being done, whatever verdict be pronounced upon it by fallible men.
Further, if you have "failed" with your poor sinner in New York or Chicago, it is well worth reminding yourself that the grace he has rejected may well be offered to and accepted by another sinner in India or Africa; it may win for a sinner, at the last moment, the grace of conversion, as in the case cited from the Cure of Ars. Because of your efforts in a case that is voted a failure, grace is granted to someone else, someone you do not even know, someone you have never heard of. One of the accidental joys of heaven will be to meet such souls, which you have saved or helped to save through your apostolate of "failure."
Rene Bazin writes that there is only one failure possible in the spiritual life ceasing to try. The words are true, not only when applied to one's own efforts to grow in grace, but also when there is question of bringing other souls to God. God is always winning; nothing done for the pure motive of love of Him is ever or can ever be a failure.
Jesus, when the results I long for are slow in coming, give me patience and the gift of perseverance. When my field of action is circumscribed, when I feel I am wasted and not being used as would seem to me fitting, give me patience to accept and do what still is in my power to do. Jesus, when I feel an utter failure, when everything I touch seems to crumble to dust, then, most of all, teach me to look to Calvary and, from the sight of Your "failure" there, to realize that only God can judge what is success and what is failure.
Summary:
1. The fisher of men needs patience when the desired results are slow in coming.
2. He needs steady perseverance when he is inclined to complain of lack of opportunity.
3. Most of all, when failure threatens to ruin his projects, he holds on because he knows that there is "the triumph of failure."
Thought:
Whatever is done for God has a value intrinsic to itself, altogether independent of the external results.