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Wednesday Wondering - October 2, 2204

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Scripture

2Corinthians 12: 9

My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  


2Corinthians 12: 10

I am glad for weaknesses, constraints, and distress for Christ’s sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.  


Reflection

This reflection is adapted from a reflection from Fr. Richard Rohr from October1, 2024.


In his letters to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul, following Jesus, forever reversed the societal understanding of the importance of one’s ego and of one’s accomplishments, and it is this precise reversal of values—and new entrance point—that challenges our understanding of the world today. It is something that I wonder if many of us struggle with in our own lives. To understand that in our weakness we might just find strength. How do we move from our own sense of importance in our lives to understanding that to let go of ego, to live within our weakness might be where we are to find our strength and our God. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun who became the youngest, least educated, and most quickly designated doctor of the Church, also sought this downward path, which she called “a new way” or her “little way.”  


Thérèse—lovingly called the Little Flower by most Catholics—was right, on both counts, since her way of life was indeed very new for most people and very “little” instead of the usual upward-bound Christian agenda, where we work to do more, be more, acquire more. Doing “all the smallest things and doing them through love” was the goal for Thérèse. The common path of most Christianity by her time had become based largely on perfectionism and legalism, making the good news anything but good or inviting for generations of believers. In order to be a true follower of the good news, one had to live this perfect life, no sin, always aware of the rules and regulations of one’s faith. In order to live in our faith we need to see ourselves as one of those perfect Christians.


Thérèse, almost counter to reason, declared: “If you want to bear in peace the trial of not pleasing yourself, you will give me [the Virgin Mary] a sweet home.”  If you look at ourselves, we come to see how difficult it can be for us to recognize and admit our shortcomings, our faults, and our weaknesses, and it is this, looking at ourselves and seeing all of these, that can and does send many of us into those terribly bad moods without even realizing where that mood’s has come from. In other words if we see our flaws, and our faults we will then find ourselves that place where we see ourselves as being small and unimportant. To resolve this common problem, Thérèse taught to let go of the very need to “think well of yourself” to begin with! “That is your ego talking, not God,” she would say.  


Only someone who has surrendered their own sense of self-importance, their own ego, can do this, of course. Psychiatrist and popular writer Scott Peck told Richard Rohr personally that this quote was “sheer religious genius” on her part, because it made the usual posturing of religion, to be the best, to be perfect, to always be better, well-nigh impossible. It mirrors the teachings from St. Francis of Assissi who had said: “Show your love to others by not wishing that they be better Christians.” 


We can patiently accept not being good. What we cannot bear is not being considered good, not appearing good. Until we discover the “little way,” we almost all try to gain moral high ground by obeying laws and thinking we are thus spiritually advanced. Yet Thérèse wrote, “It is sufficient to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself as a child into God’s arms.” People who follow this more humble and honest path are invariably more loving, joyful, and compassionate, and have plenty of time for simple gratitude about everything. To understand that it is  not in perfection that we come to God, but rather in weakness, allows us to discard all of those notions of who we are supposed to be and to rather be who we were created to be.


To let go of the expectation of perfection, to let go of the pressure to not sin, allows us to enter into this ‘little way’ where we love deeper as we are loved deeply for who we truly are, not who we think we need to be, or who the world or our faith tells us we must be. It frees us to discard all of the expectations of the world and know that to love and be loved is what  matters, not whether we followed the correct rules, believed the correct things, or prayed the correct way. The freedom to be ourselves, in all of our weakness, in our brokenness.


I have often spoken of being a broken person, but sometimes I wonder what it  means to be broken, to be weak? There are many ways that I think about brokenness and weakness. We have brokenness and weakness of body, which we can tend to. We have brokenness of relationships, and we often see that as a weakness in ourselves, which sometimes takes time, patience, and distance to repair. Then we have the brokenness and weakness that I often speak about and that is the brokenness of self. It is a brokenness and weakness that can seem to permeate through all of one’s life. It is a brokenness that can be difficult to heal, but sometimes even more difficult to accept in one self. It is in letting go of our ego, our need for perfection, that we come to accept the weakness and brokenness in ourselves. I would like to end with this quote which speaks of the ‘little way’ the way that comes when we accept brokenness and weakness, “Do not be dismayed by the brokenness in the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in the darkness for the light that is you.”


Prayer

God of the ‘little way,’ give us the courage and the wisdom to see ourselves as we truly are, to see our weakness and our brokenness, to let go of our ego. Help us to see that you don’t desire perfection, rather you prefer us, all of us, and in bringing all of us to you, we are loved. Give us the knowledge of your love and in coming into your love we love those around us. We ask this in the  name of the one who came to show us the ‘little way,’ your son, Jesus. Amen.

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