14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 9, 2006
2 Cor 12: 7-10Christian Bros., Iona College, New Rochelle
Ursulines, Willow Dr., N.R.
“When
I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12: 10).
Every
12-step program begins with the admission that one has a problem—an addiction
to alcohol, gambling, sex, or something else—“Dear Abby” yesterday had a letter
from a shopaholic; and the admission that one is powerless to deal with it by
his or her own resources. Lots of
dieters go to Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, or a “fat farm.” Lots of people who need exercise join a gym,
hire a fitness trainer, or get a friend to join them in regular walking.
We
can’t address a weakness until we admit we have it. And most of us can’t address our weaknesses
without outside help. St. Paul says the same thing regarding his
own spiritual life. Only when he
recognizes his weakness can he draw upon the power of one stronger than he.
 |
| St. Paul (Rembrandt) |
And
Paul, that great apostle, that zealot whom some (non-Christians) even go so far
as to call the founder of Christianity—in an institutional sense—Paul had his
weaknesses. We’d love to know what was
that particular one to which he alludes today (What kind of ratings would Oprah
get if she could get Paul on?): his “thorn in the flesh, … an angel of Satan”
that “beat” him and kept him “from being too elated,” or perhaps too proud or
too comfortable about what we’d call the state of his soul.
Whatever
this weakness was—a bad habit, a predominant fault, a vice, a repeated severe
temptation—it reminded Paul of his need for grace. When he prayed about it, God told him, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”
(12:9). God’s grace—his freely given
love, mercy, redemption—is enuf for us.
We don’t have to earn God’s favor; we can’t make ourselves perfect enuf to
deserve heaven. God’s grace is all we
need: “Give me only your love and your
grace,” St. Ignatius says in a prayer-song we use sometimes. By definition grace is undeserved.
And
“power is perfected in weakness.” That
sounds strange. But it’s not our power;
it’s God’s. The weakness is ours. Remember Gideon? God ordered him to send away thousands of his
soldiers and left him with just 300, lest Israel boast that they’d won the
victory (Jgs 7:2). Whose the victory
was, was obvious enuf, then, when 300 Israelites routed their thousands of
enemies (7:20-22). God’s power is more
than enuf to compensate for our spiritual powerlessness, our inclinations to
sin, even what Augustine and Calvinist theology call our depravity. God’s power is more than enuf to snatch me
away from Satan and fling my sins into his face. Them he can have, but not me. “When a strong man fully armed guards his
house, his possessions are undisturbed,” our Lord says in a pithy parable (Luke
11:1).* Christ
is that strong man, and we are his possession.
What a consolation, if we are weak enuf to entrust ourselves to him!
* Technically, in Jesus’ parable the strong
man is the devil, who is overcome by one stronger than he, viz., Jesus, who
strips away his armor and seizes the spoils (11:22). The point remains: the overwhelming power of God!
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