Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/111410.shtml

We are afraid of weakness. Everything in our culture encourages us to be the best, the prettiest, the strongest, the smartest…even in reality tv shows we watch people who are encouraged to be the most promiscuous, the most abrasive, and the loudest person they can be. Our culture believes in bullies, because only the person who can force their beliefs to be accepted is allowed to hold those beliefs. Might makes right, and it doesn’t matter whether that right is of God or man because it is the strength of the person or group advocating that counts.

And this is wrong.

Christianity is not about overcoming oppression through strength, but through love. It is ironic; we are commanded to be weak because behind us we have the greatest power in the world. Jesus is stronger than everything, than sin, than death, than all the kings of all the earth. We are called to be weak to let His strength shine through us.

This is why Jesus says to not prepare a defense of yourself beforehand. Because when we are persecuted for His sake, He will give us an eloquence to move the stony hearts of mountains. Sometimes He speaks with our suffering, and the death of His martyrs; but then their blood writes upon the hearts of those who witness them: God is Love. And a Love worth dying for is a powerful sermon to give.

Just the same when Paul tells the church in Thessalonica to work diligently and not mind the business of others. It is weakness to be obedient and take responsibility for yourself, not trying to rise above others. We who would try to give commands to other people seek to gather strength to ourselves, but we are called to be weak and give all our strength to God. That means trusting God to use our brothers and sisters in His Word better than we can.

Because our God is the God of justice. All power and glory are His, and when He comes to rule the world He will take it back upon Himself. We who claim power now will have it stripped from us; we who claim places of honor at the table will be sent down to places of dishonor. But those who fear God, who submit in their weakness to the strength of His love, will be raised up. To seek the power of authority is to seek sovereignty, and ruling over others is God’s province. If we can be weak, we can learn to move with the authority God gives us.

In weakness there is strength, because all the power of God and the Holy Spirit wells up within us. Serving Him in humility lets us act with Him. But to be strong and seek power is to rely upon yourself. If we try to accomplish things through our strength and not God’s, we are doomed to fail because His strength endures forever, not ours.

It is terrifying to be weak, and to give up the power we have. But let us let go, and pray that God moves within us. He can accomplish more than we can even understand.