My Grace is Sufficient for You

Homily for Saturday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time

Today we reach the end of our traversal of St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. The emotional tone of the letter, its lack of order, and our ignorance of some of it’s background do not make it easy to follow, but it amply repays the effort required of the reader. The closing chapters provide an illustration of early Christian invective and polemic, because the conflict with intruders forces Paul to assert his authority. But in those same chapters Paul articulates the vision and sense of values that animate his own apostolate, revealing his faith that Jesus’ passion and resurrection are the pattern for all Christian life and expressing a spirituality of ministry unsurpassed in the New Testament.

The text we read today begins with St. Paul speaking of himself in the third person: “I know a man…” Of course, he is speaking about himself and the experience that he had on the road to Damascus when he met Jesus in person. He tells us that he was caught up into the third heaven. Ancient cosmologies depicted a multi-tiered universe. Jewish intertestamental literature contains much speculation about the number of heavens. Seven is the number usually mentioned, but the Testament of Levi speaks of three; God himself dwelt in the third of these. During this ecstatic experience, St. Paul received knowledge that he was forbidden to reveal. However, by using the experience itself, he offers proof that his preaching has been true to the Gospel that he had learned at the feet of the apostles and from Jesus himself.

Toward the end of the letter, we read of his experience of a thorn in the flesh. Whether this was some chronic issue or whether he refers to his opponents through these words is a topic of debate that will never be resolved. However, the true import of this exposition of his weakness is that he prayed three times for God to relieve him of this so-called thorn. This is a reference to the fact that Jesus himself prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane that God would take the cup of his passion away. There is one difference, however, because Paul actually receives an answer to his prayer whereas Jesus himself realized the answer. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

St. Paul shares this with the Corinthians, especially those who have been suffering under the oppression of the so-called “super apostles.” Of course, this answer is offered to all his readers who are called upon to share the sufferings of Jesus who died for us on a cross. It also reminds us that the suffering of Jesus was unimaginable and was far removed from anything that we might experience.

As we celebrate the Eucharist, we not only recall the sacrifice of Jesus, we also lay before the Lord our own weakness and remember that God’s power is made perfect in that weakness.