7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake : for when I am weak, then am I strong.
It would seem appropriate that this reading be proclaimed in Mass following the Supreme Court decision to impose same-sex "marriage" on the entire nation. The Church today certainly seems weak: too weak to even count on it's own members to affirm the Church's teaching on marriage.
St Paul said that he was given a "thorn in the flesh" but we don't know what it is. Paul calls it "the messenger of Satan", and the Navarre Bible speculates that Paul is talking about some sort of physical defect that would make evangelization difficult, something that Satan would certainly want. Perhaps it was a physical abnormality that would cause people to look away when Paul was near: an open wound, perhaps, or warts on his face. Or perhaps it was a speech impediment. There is some evidence in Paul's writings that he was a better writer than a speaker.
Paul prayed to God to have whatever this was removed from him, but God responded that His grace was sufficient for Paul. We can imagine Paul having the best of intentions for seeing this thorn removed: he'd be a better evangelist. It's only logical that if he were to be an evangelist that God would help him out. But that would not be.
God's grace was sufficient for Paul, and His strength is made perfect in weakness. God's grace is sufficient to do what? To endure the thorn? To overcome it? To evangelize in spite of it? How does His strength demonstrate itself in weakness? The classic understanding of this is that when we put our trust in ourselves, or in other people, we will be let down. Every time. But in the struggle, we can see God's power. When we acknowledge our own limitations, then it's clear that every success we have is through God. But as long as we think that our success is due to to our own skills, then our pride will block God's glory from being seen.
So what does that mean for us today? Certainly, we have a militantly secular government in the US and that could be seen as a thorn in our side. It does certainly seem to be an impediment to evangelization: the government does not recognize that the separation of Church and State and will eventually seek to impose it's will on every aspect of Church life. Today it's contraception and abortion coverage in health insurance. Soon it may be forcing priests to marry homosexuals. Soon it may be prosecuting priests with hate crimes if they speak out against the gay agenda (though that won't be an issue in my parish, I'm afraid). These efforts deliberately seek to marginalize the Church and turn opinion against it.
The Church has prayed for relief from this thorn. It has just completed another Fortnight for Freedom. And the effect of these annual prayer campaigns has been that things have gotten worse, not better. It seems that God is saying "My grace is sufficient for you and my power is made perfect in weakness."
Benedict XVI's prophesy is coming true. The Church will lose it's edifices and structures. Catholic hospitals may need to be sold off to avoid cooperation with evil. Catholic charities may shrink from their public service as they are forced to embrace contraception, abortion, gay marriage and the rest. Should the Church lose it's tax exempt status, the physical structure of the Church will shrink as some parishes will close and others will be forced to sell off their parish centers and auditoriums to bring their property tax bill in line with their ability to pay.
In short, the Church will lose it's power to enforce it's teachings on it's own members and indirectly on society. The Church will be a humble organization with little official influence and will have to rely on the power of persuasion and not on social conformity and good manners to get it's message across. It will have to propose these beliefs with conviction, but also with humility. For instance, it won't be enough for Father Barron to explain why the Church should have the right to believe what it believes. In the future, Father Barron might have to explain why the Church believes what it believes. That has been lacking. And in the future we'll have to explain the Church's teaching without schools, without organized charity, without publishing houses, without universities and without hospitals. All those things, that should have made it easy to evangelize have been judged by God to be unnecessary at best and a distraction at worst. He has given us this thorn to focus our attention on what's important.
No comments:
Post a Comment