9th Sunday after Pentecost 25 July 2021 Strength
The way we feel at the moment (Covid crisis, Traditionis Custodes) it is appropriate to be reminded that we are never tested beyond our strength. (1 Co 13,10 epistle).
We feel the testing, certainly. Do we also feel the strength coming from above?
We keep our eyes fixed on the certainties of our faith even when appearances might lead us other ways.
No matter what happens we can say with Job: I know my redeemer liveth (Job 19,25) - an expression of our faith in God Himself, rather than being too weighed down with passing circumstances.
God will be the ultimate victor, and His ways are the best and only ways to make sense of this troubled life.
Why does He not make it easier for us? It is because He is testing us. He will not let us be tested beyond our strength, but He will test us to see how strong we are.
The testing actually makes us stronger, and on this basis we should not wish for an armchair ride though this life. God is refining us like gold (1 P 1,6-7).
He does not do this as though He takes some pleasure in watching us suffer, but to lead us to fuller blessings and a greater capacity to enjoy those blessings.
When God allows us to be tested, it is bringing out the best in us, and for us to discover what is there underneath. And we are very pleased to find good things there.
Along the lines of saying: We don’t know how fast we can run unless we have a bull chasing us!
Our first reaction to trouble is to say that we cannot cope. But when we have been through something, we can look back and say: Well, that really wasn’t so bad as I thought, or as it might have been.
We can still pray that bad things do not happen. For example, in the words of Our Lady at Fatima, the Second World War was a punishment for sin. We could have averted that war if we had repented in time.
If we repent now we can avert or at least reduce the severity of punishments.
If the trials still come, however, we can be thankful for God's mercy and ask Him to intervene to spare us as much as possible.
We can find silver lining in the clouds but we can also pray that the clouds do not come.
By both natural and supernatural ways we try to change whatever is wrong.
Naturally: We appeal to reason and common decency. For example, in making the streets safe at night, or driving safely.
Supernaturally: we appeal to the grace and mercy of God for those things which are beyond our good intentions or will power.
With supernatural help we can be purified at the deeper levels, removing the ingrained sins, so common as to be acceptable to many, but not to God.
We will find that long-standing sins and vices will disappear, even though we might have thought it impossible
Everyone does these things, we might say, but no one has to do them. and grace will set us free.
We are not tested beyond our strength because God will either remove the difficulty, or increase our strength.
One way or the other He will help us, and we will come out better for the experience.
How strong are we? We do not know, but we are stronger than we thought!
The more we grow in strength the more suffering God will allow to come our way (cf the lives of saints).
It might not sound like not much of a recommendation – the holier we are the more we suffer – but with that we will have more love to absorb the suffering.
God is God, after all. I trust Him and totally put myself in His keeping .
History can repeat itself, but it does not have to be the same in every generation. We really can break the cycle of sin and punishment, improving ourselves and the world at the same time.
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