The apostle Peter says, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.” The way viewers are seeing Susan Boyle is like the way God sees us: worthwhile, special, talented, unique, beautiful as a whole person. The world generally looks suspicious at people like Susan Boyle without classic good looks, without a job, without a spouse, living in a small town. We don’t see people like her important, either. But God sees the real person and the value of each person’s gifts: rich or poor, young or old, single or married, lucky or unlucky in life. God knows us and loves us as we are.
Jesus calls us friends not slaves. Think about your friends. You may find some flaws in them, but you regardless like them because they are your friends. But if we tend to draw a line that distinguishes between my friends and those who are not, we again fall into the way that the world looks at people: unequal, partial, unnoticeable unless they have good looks, decent jobs, and substantial ability in terms of finance and relationships. We all may feel vulnerable when people use the gadgets to compare us to others. But God shows no partiality; Jesus calls us friends regardless of our appearance, manner and ability. We don’t need to be successful to be children of God; we don’t need to be good or decent to be friends of Jesus Christ. God simply declares, “This is my beloved sons and daughters with whom I am well pleased.” This is the Gospel; this is the good news that we can hold on to the end not the words that the world keeps telling us: “You are not beautiful enough. You are not smart enough. You are not good enough.” But it is up to us whether we are going to give more power to the world over God who says something totally different, “You are my beloved one.” If we follow the world, who are we who have more power over God?
Jesus calls us friends. We have a saying that our friends can tell who we are. I would like to be a friend of Jesus since he first wants to be a friend of me which is true honor first of all. As a matter of fact, Pope Benedict says, “The core of priesthood is being a friend of Jesus Christ.” I love this saying because I would like to know more about my best friend, so I want to spend more time with my best friend in prayer. That makes a perfect sense to me that Jesus my best friend invites me to learn from him, taking his yoke upon me, because he is the meek and humble of heart.
Love is not a feeling but a will. We need to be willing to see the good things within us and others as God sees us. No matter how we might feel about us and others, although we are not naturally drawn to certain people, we can still be willing to risk our lives for such people because Jesus did it for each of us. St. Paul asks us now, “Consider you own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
Susan Boyle is probably one of the lowly and despised of the world and those who count for nothing. But God calls her friend, inspiring us and giving us a valuable lesson. We are truly impressed with her talent that is one of many gifts to her from God, feeling good about us because we can relate ourselves to her, not being prominent but simple, maybe poor in some areas like her. Furthermore, she has taught us to know how often we fail to see the good things within us and others blocked by our own wrong perception. Everybody is somebody whether or not one is unpopular, unprepossessing, and even unborn.
Thank you, Susan Boyle! I wish best luck for your new journey. We will keep watching you because your journey is ours. Your success is ours. We are very happy about it. We now can tell that we all are Susan Boyle in the eyes of God: worthwhile, special, talented, unique, beautiful as a whole person. As Psalm 139 says, every person, no matter what his or her talents, is fearfully and wonderfully made by the loving Father.