MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS

MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS

Fr Luke A Veronis

Why do good people suffer? Why, when we try to follow Christ, do we still face illness, tragedy, and hardship? The Apostle Paul asked the same question, and the answer he got from our Lord Jesus is “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Saint Paul heard these words when he was trying to figure out why he suffered so much, even as he prayed for relief. Throughout the great Apostle’s life, he suffered to an extent that few of us could ever relate with. Five times he was whipped with 39 lashes; three times beaten with rods; once stoned almost to death; three times ship wrecked, even drifting out at sea for a night and day; numerous times imprisoned; threatened continuously by robbers, by his fellow Jews, by the Roman authorities; often traveling in hunger, sleeping in the wilderness; and possibly the greatest suffering of all was the emotional rejection he felt from the people he so greatly loved.

The Apostle Paul understood suffering and could relate with the worst of turmoil. And in addition to all his physical pain, he confessed that “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, unless I think too highly of myself.” Some other inner Cross antagonized Saint Paul to such a degree that he begged God to remove his burden. He writes, “I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me, but God said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’”

Here we see the greatest missionary of history, and one of the greatest saints of our Church, pleading with God to take away his suffering, and yet the Lord doesn’t remove his cross. Instead, Christ teaches St. Paul an invaluable lesson – “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in your weakness.”

In the eyes of the world, weakness is failure. But in the Kingdom of God, weakness becomes the path to divine strength. The Cross, once a symbol of shame, becomes the tree of life.

Too often I see people confused with the crosses they bear in life. One dear lady I frequently visited used to say to me, “I don’t know what I did to deserve all this pain and suffering. I am a good person. I went to church regularly. I’ve tried to treat others well. Why is God making me suffer now in my old age? What have I done to deserve this?”

I listened to her confusion and gently tried to explain how the saints, who modeled lives of holiness, weren’t exempt from suffering, pain, and even horrible death.

Today, we celebrate the great feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and tomorrow we will remember the twelve Apostles. These men represented Christ’s closest followers, those who intimately walked with the Lord and dedicated their lives to proclaim His message to the world. And yet, when we examine the lives of these great apostles, all of them suffered terribly throughout their lives. I described the crosses of St. Paul, but St. Peter was crucified upside down. The other apostles endured torture. All but one of the twelve died as martyrs. And the one who didn’t was imprisoned and exiled.

The Epistle reading we will read tomorrow on the Feast of the Apostles describes the apostolic life this way: “To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. We labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now… We are unknown, yet well known; we die, yet behold we live; are chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

To follow Christ, and to stay faithful to His teachings, is no guarantee that life will be easy. Too many Christians believe the heretical teachings of the “Prosperity Gospel” which promises believers health, wealth and prosperity if one believes in Jesus. That’s a utter distortion of the Gospel. Yes, Jesus Christ promised his followers an “abundant life,” but not in a worldly, materialistic sense!

Jesus promises that He will be with us always. He promises to give us peace and strength in the face of any temptation and cross that life may bring. He promises to fill us with His divine joy, love and peace, which no exterior circumstance can take away. He allows us to begin tasting here and now the Kingdom of Heaven and enter into the fullness of His Kingdom after our death.

Our Lord promised many things, but He never promised that life would be easy, comfortable, prosperous and healthy. Some may have a comfortable, even prosperous life, but that is no sign of God’s blessing. St. Paul teaches to be content with whatever we have - whether we have much or whether we have little. Whatever life gives us isn’t important, but how we live our lives with what we have is of the utmost significance!

Look at the life of Christ Himself. Jesus was God incarnate and yet he experienced life as a refugee and immigrant, raised in a poor family, often misunderstood and rejected by others, serving people with love and doing only good, yet in return receiving ridicule, hatred and persecution. Ultimately, whenever we look upon Jesus on the Cross, we remember how He invited all His followers to “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”

Crosses are a part of life. As Bishop Gerasimos of blessed memory used to say, “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.” The Crosses we bear in life are often mysteries we can’t understand. Yet we carry them with faith and in hope.

We learn to not only endure but to actually live with God’s grace sustaining us in the midst of every cross. “My grace is sufficient for you,” our Lord says. “For my strength is made perfect in your weakness.”

Jesus taught St. Paul what the first Beatitude means, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be truly poor in spirit implies how we understand that we have nothing, we are nothing, before God. We stand naked before Him trusting solely in His grace. Precisely when we become spiritual paupers can we turn to God in hope and rely completely upon Him.

God allows his precious saints, like the Apostles Paul and Peter, to experience suffering and abandonment so that they won’t think too highly of themselves. It is when we become too comfortable with ourselves, when we think too highly of our accomplishments, when we feel proud of who we are, precisely then we risk the danger of trusting in ourselves and not in God!

We all must become poor in spirit in order to learn to trust solely in God’s grace. When we face the unexpected challenges, the daunting crosses, and the seemingly unbearable sufferings of life, remember that “His strength is made perfect in our weakness.” Remember that “His grace is sufficient for us.” Remember to turn to our Heavenly Father and throw yourself into His loving embrace. No matter what life brings, He cares for us. He sustains us. He never abandons us.

Let me conclude with Saint Paul’s words to the Romans: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril or the sword?... Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present or things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, don’t run from your weakness. Don’t be confused by your suffering. Carry your Cross with faith and in hope. Trust in Him. Let His grace become the very gift where His power is revealed.”