Ordinary Time - Week 14b
My grace is sufficient for you
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)In the Second Reading of today's Mass, Saint Paul lets us see the depths of his humility. After speaking to the Corinthians about his labours for Christ and the visions and revelations he had received from the Lord, he goes on to tell them of his weakness: to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flak a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.
We do not know with any certainty what Saint Paul is referring to when he speaks of this thorn in the flesh. Some Fathers of the Church, think it is a particularly painful physical affliction; others think that he is referring to the tribulations caused him by the continuous persecutions of which he is the victim; and some, are of the opinion that he is referring to temptations that he finds particularly difficult to resist. Whatever it is, it is something that humiliates the Apostle, and that in some way hinders his work as a bearer of the Gospel.
Saint Paul had asked God three times to remove this obstacle from him. He received this sublime reply: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness": God's help is sufficient for him to overcome that difficulty; at the same time we are given to know about the divine power that enabled him to overcome it. He becomes stronger when he relies on God's help, and this causes him to exclaim: "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities; for when I am weak then I am strong." In our own weakness we too constantly experience the need to turn towards God and draw on the strength that comes to us from him. How often God has said to us deep in our hearts: My grace is sufficient for you, you have my help to enable you to overcome all trials and difficulties. Perhaps we sometimes have a particularly vivid experience of loneliness, weakness or tribulation: If so, seek the support of him who died and rose again. Find yourself a shelter in the wounds in his hands, in his feet, in his side. And your willingness to start again will revive, and you will take up your journey again with greater determination and effectiveness.
Even our frailty and our weaknesses can be turned to good account. In his commentary on this passage, Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that God can sometimes allow certain evils of a physical or moral order precisely so as to draw from them a greater, more necessary good. God will never abandon us in the midst of temptation. Our very weakness helps us to have greater trust, to seek refuge in God more urgently, to ask him for greater strength and to be more humble: Lord, put not your trust in me. But I, I put my trust in you. Then, as we sense in our hearts the love, the compassion, the tenderness of Christ's gaze upon us - for He never abandons us - we shall come to understand the full meaning of those words of Saint Paul: "Power is made perfect in weakness." If we have faith in Our Lord, in spite of our failings - or, rather, with our failings - we shall be faithful to our Father, God; his divine power will shine forth in us, sustaining us in our weakness.