THE POWER OF GOD AND HUMAN WEAKNESS.

-

July 7, 2024.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – B.

Readings: Ez 2:2-5; Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mk6:1-6.

“So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” Mk 6:5

A Corsican proverb says: “Have faith and God will provide.” A Portuguese proverb adds: “Faith has no eyes; he who asks to see has no faith.”

Humans are weak, frail, prone to sin, and rebellious. We often let our weaknesses and rebellious minds take over our inner goodness. God, however, shows his love and power at work in us. He can transform our stories and make of our weakness, the place where his grace operates. The only thing God’s grace requires to be at work in us is a firm faith in him. Without faith, no miracle is possible and God’s power inoperative.

Today, again, like the two precedent Sundays, we continue meditating and speaking about God's power. Previously, it was about his power over the forces of nature. Then his power to heal and bring back to life. Today, it is about God's power to make weak, rebellious, and frail instruments, his great prophets, and Apostles.

In the first reading, we hear about the dialog between God and Ezekiel. The Lord sent him to bring his word to the rebellious house of Israel and invite them to conversion. A simple man like any other, the Lord called him, empowered him, and made him his messenger to his people. What the Prophet accomplished and all the powerful and fearless words he proclaimed were all due to God's power at work in him. For, the Spirit of God has the power to transform our weaknesses.

St. Paul, in the second reading, emphasizes that point. When the Apostle was more concerned about his incapacities and frailty, the Lord assured him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Filled with that assurance, the Apostle can proclaim: "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." That is a great act of faith in God's power at work in one's life. He no longer relies on himself but on God at work in him, and he stands firm in his faith.

As Christians, we should all reach this awareness. That God's grace and power supplies to our human weaknesses and frailties. Nothing should stop us or discourage us from pursuing our goal and doing good, not even the apparent rejections. The Lord Jesus himself faced rejection as we read in the Gospel. When he came to his native place, his own people refused to put their trust and faith in him because they thought they knew him: "Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”

The human weakness of the people of Nazareth did not deter Jesus. Though he did not perform so many signs there because of their unbelief, he still cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

This sad episode of Jesus' mission in Nazareth comes to prove what we said in our meditation last Sunday. Faith is the key that opens us to miracles and to experience God's grace and power. Without faith, nothing great can be done. The saddest human weakness that can hinder God's power to operate in us is the lack of faith. With faith all things are possible. It is because of and through his faith that Paul made this great assertion: "For when I am weak, then I am strong." We too can reach that affirmation of self through faith in Jesus. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASSUMPTION OF MARY, BEYOND THE DOGMA.

-
Image
August 15, 2020 Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Readings:  Rev 12:1-6a, 10ab;  Ps 45: 10, 11, 12, 16;  1 Cor 15:20-27;  Lk 1:39-58. A Romanian proverb says, “Honor is the reward of virtue.” And a Japanese proverb adds, “The consequence is the reward of the cause.” Beyond the dogmatic definitions and declarations, all the Marian solemnities and devotions are but, an act of gratefulness and thanksgiving our humanity raises to God. For, in his great power and omniscience, he chose to become one of us, and he did it through a humble virgin whom he has elected to be his Mother. Mary is one of us. She is the instrument God was please, in all his creation, to hand-pick to contribute in his mystery of Incarnation and Salvation. We cannot separate Jesus from Mary. We cannot speak of Jesus as known through the Holy Scriptures without mention Mary his Mother. Some people try hard to eclipse Mary from the Lord's mysteries of the life, and mission....
Read more

GOD OF EVERLASTING MERCY.

-
Image
April 7, 2024. Second Sunday of Easter - Sunday of Divine Mercy – B. Readings: Acts 4:32-35; Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Jn5:1-6; Jn 20:19-31. "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." Jn 20:23 A Chinese proverb says: “The Buddha has mercy even on the meanest thing.” A Filipino proverb adds: “Mercy resides in God; deeds are in men.” At Easter, what we really celebrate is a regeneration, a new birth, and a new opportunity offered to sinners. The Lord, by dying on the Cross, took away our evilness and made us new creatures. This newness opens us to new life. We are given to rediscover our original beauty that we lost in sin. It is a journey of purification that finds its origin in God's everlasting and always renewed love. We are celebrating today, the second Sunday of Easter, the Divine Mercy Sunday. Our opening prayer already gives the tune of our celebration: "God of everlasting mercy, who in...
Read more

MARRIAGE, A NOBLE VOCATION.

-
Image
October 6, 2024. Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – B. Readings: Gn 2:18-24; Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6; Heb 2:9-11; Mk10:2-16 or 10:2-12. “If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us.” 1 Jn 4:12 A Romanian proverb says: “Love is blind, but marriage finds a cure.” A German proverb adds: “Marriage is the opposite of a fever attack; it begins very hot and ends very cold.” Marriage is a noble divine institution. It is the surgent of the society, of life, and so, of any other calling. Through the marital union of husbands and wives, a new life originated opening to a new vocation. Without doubt, after the Holy Eucharist, the Matrimonial Union is the nobless of all Sacraments. It even has greater value in terms of impact on social life than the Sacramental Order of the Presbytery. In the Diocese of Lucena, while celebrating the 74th Foundation Anniversary, this year is dedicated to vocation. In the prayer for the year of vocations, we rea...
Read more