American TAC priest writes on "Holy Weak"

If you get to the end of the Lenten season and say "wow, I really did great this year!" there is a good chance that you really did awful. Yet, we are supposed to feel like we have grown in our faith and are able to love God and neighbor more than we did before. God wants us to be encouraged. It is this tension that Paul saw and tried to root out of the Church in Corinth. This is why he also pointed out to them that Jesus said "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9). When we hold on to the two different ideas it can be confusing, but the world we live in is created that way. "You have to go down to go up." If you have grown into a deeper relationship with Christ, then your heart should be saying both "I am weak" and "Jesus is strong", so that you can also say "I have grown" and do so without pride.

In this Holy Week are you feeling a bit weak? I know I am, and I also know that is a good thing. When we are weak and pliable, then we are able to be used. Dried clay is set and is only useful for one purpose; wet clay can be formed for many uses. Strength in the flesh will only make us break like clay pots when God calls us to service. None of us who are waiting to be received into the Catholic Church knows exactly what we will be called to do; that can be frightening. Let us accept our weakness, seeing that Christ appeared as weak on these days of the Triduum. Yet in that apparent weakness was found the greatest strength man can know. The strength of faithfulness and determination; the strength of the accomplishment of our redemption; the strength that led to the victory of the Resurrection of that first Easter morning. When we are weak, then we are strong.