EFFICIENCY! It is oh so American to be efficient. Tasks must be done in a timely and efficient manner. If the task cannot be done efficiently then it must be cut out or outsourced. There are many products and services that uses convenience and efficiency as their main selling point. The Average Catholic rebukes this efficiency to give praise and worship to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us be like children who delights in God’s creation with self-abandonment with no mind to what is most efficient.
Let us look at the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. Abel is a shepherd who offers the best of the best of his flock. Cain is a farmer who offers the medium quality of his crop. God found Abel’s offering pleasing, while Cain’s offering was dismissed. Often, Cain is painted as someone who is selfish or inconsiderate. However, you could look at him as being a good farmer. He wanted to keep the best of his crop to ensure future good harvests. It is almost irresponsible of Abel to hamper the growth of his flock by offering the first born and the best fatty portions. Yet, it is Abel’s offering that is given God’s approval.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.” – Genesis 4: 2-7 ESV
What a waste! Have you heard that about a religious practice? Missing a football game to go to mass? Going to confession when its obvious the same sin will be committed? Saying no to meat on days of abstinence? The very attractive person choosing a life of celibacy (ex. https://newsroompanama.com/2025/12/02/the-incredible-story-of-a-fashion-model-who-ended-up-becoming-a-nun/) Forgiving someone who deserves your wrath. Feeding the hungry who will just be hungry tomorrow. All what a waste!
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31
God’s ways are not our ways. In Matthew 11:25, “At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.’” How quick we are to dismiss the Wisdom of God because it is not efficient or inconvenient. If we would have chosen how to start a world wide religion, then would we have chosen 12 men with no significant worldly connections? Would we have sacrificed God Himself for the salvation of all humankind? Would we even have chosen ourselves to be brought into existence?
A line that always brings me joy is in Deuteronomy 7: 6-8,
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
God has chosen first the Jewish people then all of the nations. He continues to choose us despite our imperfections. It is an overwhelming relentless love that goes beyond words. But the Creator of the Universe has personally knitted us in the womb. (Psalm 139) It’s all too easy to think God is wasting His time with us.
In Economics, there is something called a productions possibility frontier (PPF). It is a graph that helps illustrate the options associated with the consumption of resources to produce certain goods. It helps depicts the pros and cons of deciding how to allocate resources.
The goal for Economics is to have the resources be along the curve, because that is when all of the resources available are used up and produce as many possible products. Therefore, along the curve is the most efficient, because there is no waste. If we tried to go outside the curve, then we will fail, because there is insufficient resources to produce the combination that we desire. If we tried to go inside the curve, then it is indeed possible, but with the consequence that not all of the resources are used. Outside the curve is impossible, and inside the curve is inefficient if not wasteful.
Try to put yourself on the Productions Possibility frontier. Take into account all of the gifts and talents that you possessed. Take into account all of your obligations and limitations. Take into account the time and energy that you have. Take into account the people in your life; friend and foe. We have the years on this planet to produce something for the Lord. Where do you see yourself on the frontier?
The scrupulous person, those with an inordinate obsession with pleasing God, would want to be the most efficient possible with no deviation from the Will of God. Those who are obstinate in mind or spirit, might justify being within the curve. Both are extremes that are motivated more so by pride than humble service towards God. Remember, look at the children of the world. How they “waste” time with play, creation, and joy. We say growing up is the same as losing that childlike wonder. If efficiency means I can’t enjoy God’s creation, then let me be wasteful for the greater glory of God!
People claim God has a sense of humor and this thought experiment will be no refutation of that claim. The idea of efficiency and productivity probably hinders more than helps when growing our relationship with God. God tells us to wait when we want to act. God tells us to give when we want to keep. God tells us to forgive when we want to punish. God tells us to listen when we want to talk. God tells us to be grateful when we are bitter.
I think of the story of Gideon as the perfect example of God being inefficient in Judges 7:1-8.
Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”G
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
The Lord complains about too many men! The Lord wanted it to be clear that He Himself was the reason for Gideon’s victory and not the might of the army. God intentionally went the less efficient route to make His Glory known. Should be no surprise from the God who told His people to traverse a desert for 40 years in order to purify a generation. This is a King who chose to arrive to Earth in utmost poverty. What do we know about efficiency and wastefulness? We Average Catholics barely understand the success metrics that God is using. How then are we supposed to know what is the most efficient way to achieve those success metric? How many of us would join Judas in saying, “what a waste!” (Matthew 26:6-13) when we encounter God’s Generosity?
If God told you a daily schedule in order to achieve the pinnacle level of holiness, then would you even follow it? If your sole reason to being on Earth was to make sure on some random day on some random hour you gave a compliment to a stranger, then would you consider it wasteful? It is arrogance on our part to desire glory that is not ours to have. Even if we are called to “productive” vocations that lead to a global impact, still, all praise and glory to God for we must not boast in anything but the Lord.
The Average Catholic wishes to follow the Will of God and be content in life. Perhaps, it is our resistance to our vocation that leads to our discontentment. All people are made in the image and likeness of God and predestined to perpetual existence after death. Would it be inefficient to focus on the care of one Soul? Even if it’s one soul, that singular soul has an infinite impact in the next life. If our impact involves thousands or even millions of souls, then that still is an infinite impact in the next life.
What is wasteful? The parables of lost things drive home the fact that our God is quite wasteful in His Love for us; in Luke 15: there is the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost prodigal son. All stories about going through extraordinary effort to retrieve a relatively small good. But in the eyes of God we are worth giving up His entire life. I love the image of the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. God is spreading His Love to all kinds of people: believers and non-believers. He relentlessly gives of Himself for that is the God that He is.
We are called to love recklessly as God does. To love with self abandonment. Dare I say it, we must be wasteful with our love! Love our friends, family, enemy, stranger, alien, persecutor, and the unredeemable. Watch yourself whenever we think in terms of “wasteful.” Sometimes we are called to be wasteful by a God who cannot be outdone in generosity.
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