My son sent me an interesting article by Michael Buckley on the need for priests (all of us have a priestly call) to value the experience of weakness as an entry into the priestly ministry of compassion. Buckley quoted St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "I will all the more gladly boast of my weakness that the power of God may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong." Of Christ, Paul said, "He is not weak in dealing with you, but powerful in you. For he was crucified in weakness; but lives by the power of God." 2 Cor. 13:3-4.
Buckley says, "Weakness relates us profoundly with other people. It allows us to feel with them the human condition, the human struggle and darkness and anguish that call out for salvation."
I am reminded of Terese of Lisieux who practiced humility and accepted denigration as gifts of suffering with the suffering Christ.
It seems that I can't enter into the suffering of others (suffer with them) if I can't accept my own suffering, my own limited circumstances of life. But it's pretty difficult not to opt for a grand life (that BMW!), or a life walled off from inconvenience and pain. (After all, what am I working for??) Problem is, how then can I answer the call of my vocation to enter into the suffering of others, to be com-passionate as Christ was (is)? The distance I maintain from my own suffering separates me just as much from others'. If vocation is a call to be for others, then it can't be about my own self-realization, how I hope to prove myself in the face of the crowd. Essentially, my "performance" is only before my God who made me, my sole director and critic!
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