Thorn in my flesh

Today, in the second reading, from the second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, the Apostle talks about a thorn in his flesh. After talking about his vision of heaven, he says that God gave him a thorn not to become proud. Even though he managed to have a glimpse of eternity, he couldn’t forget about his human nature. He says of himself: “it kept me from being too elated.” It happens to us too. We have in our hearts a desire for an everlasting happiness, but we touch every day our limitations, our daily shortcomings. We go from knowing that we are called to holiness, to our experience that only God can make us holy.

We call it original sin. You can call it what you want, but we all have the experience of our fallen nature. We do what we don’t want to do, and we don’t do what we ought to do. We are lazy, proud, selfish, too concerned about ourselves, full of insecurities, anxious, easy to lose our temper, prone to react wrongly. Saint Paul calls it a thorn in his flesh. We can relate to that. We don’t know the specific affliction the Apostle is talking about. Some people say it was a physical malady, others the tribulations caused by the continuous persecutions to the Church, and some say a temptation, especially lust. Lust makes us humble because we touch in our own flesh our feeble nature.

There are two areas where human beings, normally fall down, and both begin with “ch”: charity and chastity. It is a common experience that we all have to struggle in these two virtues, against ourselves and against others, or to put it another way, integrating our sexuality and loving others as Christ did. We are going to bear these two thorns till the end of our lives. We need to be patient. As long as we are aware of them and we ask for God’s help, we are on the right path. Better the devil you know.

Saint Paul asked God three times to get rid of his thorn. How many times we have asked God to ease the pressure of our sins, to put a chain on the devil? We too would like to have no temptations, not to have to struggle against our limitations. We think that we would have a better life if we had control of our flesh. But God answered the Apostle three times: “My grace is enough for you.” God is telling us: “You have sufficient power from me to resist any temptation.” We know that, but we keep falling down. Why is it? Why is it so difficult to live without sin?

The answer comes also from on High: “Power is made perfect in weakness.” Precisely, God’s action is manifested when we experience our weaknesses, and we touch his omnipotence. God Almighty can lift our fallen human nature to amazing heights, even to become a bit like him, because his only begotten Son became man, for us to become like him. That thorn we feel in our flesh, so deeply ingrained, impossible to extract, can become the rocket which propels us towards holiness. Then we can say with Saint Paul: “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

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