The road towards Christ is never easy. We can never allow ourself to be fooled into thinking that it is. If we are fooled into thinking that this path is an easy one to follow; we in time will give up hope when we realize that this reality is not so. Saint Paul delivers this reality to us because he points towards a weakness that is present in his life, he mentions how much he prayed for this weakness to pass away, and yet he tells us that this burden was not lifted as easily as he had originally hoped. Instead he had to find solace in the words of Christ: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
We live in a world that refuses to find solace in these words of our Lord. We want our burden to be lifted easily and want to avoid the pains of conversion at all costs. When a fix does not come easily we lose faith and move onto some other means with the hope that it will lead towards our healing. We are led by the tides of relativism to be led astray into accepting any sinful action as being ordered towards good because we refuse to see the importance of Christ's sacrificial offering of love as it is presented upon the cross. Despite all of this our Lord calls out to us like He did Saint Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
Some might claim that these words are not pastoral enough because it would have been easier for Saint Paul to hear something that would not lead him towards encountering conversion. It would of been easier to hear something similar to "your weakness is not a big deal thus head into the world and live as you wish." These are the words in which Saint Paul had hoped that he would hear, but Christ instead wanted to embrace this weakness in order to truly allow him to grow in his faith for God. From embracing this weakness he was given the strength to tame it; not through his own merit, but through the grace that was offered to him through Christ. This grace was enough to sustain him in his need and thus to teach him to grow in his love for God. We can therefore claim that these words of Christ are words given through an authentic understanding of the true meaning of love.
The Church in her infinite wisdom must continue to speak out to this world and help to reorient it back towards God no matter how hard that path that is set before us may be. The path towards God may be hard, but the Church always directs souls along this path with true pastoral charity. Issues that plague our modern world are abundant and range from the many crosses that people must bare for one reason or another. It would be easiest to toss out the cross in all of its weight, but it is the job of the Church to reecho the words of Christ back to us: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
May we join ourself to Saint Paul who exclaimed loudly from his weakness: "Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong." For those who are forced to bear an abundant cross never despair that God loves you any less, but instead has left you with a great gift to make you strong. I realize that there are people here who still struggle from the sadness of divorce, I realize that there are some who probably live with each other outside of marriage, I realize that some have married outside of the Church, I realize that there are some who are tempted to the use of contraception, I realize that some may struggle with same sex attraction, and this list goes on and on. Realize that Christ nor the Church loves you any less, but instead cries out to you to not give into the ways of the world.
Love is not allowing people to destroy their relationship with God. Love is coming to embrace the cross and thus coming to realize that the bond of marriage is life long and thus if the relationship ends the bond remains, love is to realize that just because we have a sexual urge does not mean that we have to give into it when we have yet to be united in marriage, love is respect for each other's body and thus that communication and respect is necessary in order to enter into the marital embrace, love is creative because through it two join together in order to become one flesh which as a result brings forth new life, and love is despite our sexual attraction coming to master over our sexual urges. One can have same sex attraction and remain Catholic and in the state of grace, but this individual like all of us must embrace the love that is poured out from the cross. The cross calls them, like the divorced, or the unmarried to find the value that lies in chastity. Christ is assuring us no matter what cross we must bear of His love and thus He continues to cry out to us all the more: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
No comments:
Post a Comment