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“I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardship, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” “To You, I lift up my eyes, O Lord!”
Brothers and sisters, you are baptized and confirmed. Do you know you are also prophets? The prophet is not a person who foretells the future, no; the true prophet is a person whom God sends to tell the truth: the truth about God, the truth about us, human beings, the truth about the world, and the truth about life here on Earth which then continues into eternity.
Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, and all the prophets of the Old Covenant had a lot of trouble in trying to declare the Word of God to the people. St. John the Baptist was the last of these great prophets, and according to Jesus, John was the greatest among all the prophets who preceded him. John the Baptist was the greatest because he was closest to Jesus, sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus, Saviour of the world.
We are all prophets in the image of John the Baptist, because like him we are called and sent by God the Father to prepare the way for Jesus in the hearts of the people of our time. It isn’t the eloquence of our words that matters, but the reality of our life of faith. Our Good God doesn’t need our strength or our success; for his divine power, his divine mercy, and his love are more than enough to give life to every person who opens their thought, their heart, and their soul to the advances of our loving Creator God.
“I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardship, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” “To You, I lift up my eyes, O Lord!”
The perfect joy and the great freedom of the Good News is precisely that our Good God is sufficient in Himself to save the whole world. The Holy Trinity – Father, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit – the Holy Trinity suffices in itself to save us. God desires to forgive our faults, to give vigor to our weaknesses, and to make us capable of loving even our enemies; for it is with the participation of us all, his children, that God wants to save the whole world.
Salvation comes from the sacrifice which Jesus made of his whole life from his infancy to the end on the Cross. In complete confidence, Jesus offered his life to the will of his Father. He calls us now to follow Him and to make of our own life the same sacrifice with the same confidence in God the Father by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes God delivers us from distress, but whether we are delivered or not, God needs our confidence in offering Him every day our illnesses, our faults, our sufferings, and even our sins. God uses the offering of our poverty to manifest to all his power and his mercy to save.
“I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardship, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for
whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” “To You, I lift up my eyes, O Lord!”
It is difficult to speak of God to others, to share with them why we trust in God, why we love God. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength and the love of Jesus draws us on to do it. It is also for love of our neighbour that we can dare to open our mouth and let the Holy Spirit give us the words. In that moment, maybe people will be glad to hear us talk about God, but maybe not. They may even get angry. That’s the unavoidable risk we take.
Like Jesus, we cannot avoid suffering rejection and maybe even persecution at the hands of those who are closest to us: our own family, our friends, our neighbors, and our colleagues at work or at school. It is a wonderful thing for Christians to suffer opposition, persecution, and humiliation for the glory of God and out of love for our neighbor. Jesus said it Himself: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
“I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardship, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” “To You, I lift up my eyes, O Lord!”
“God, our Father, fill us anew with your Holy Spirit; that we may trust in You wholeheartedly and from day to day freely choose to live as your children, and to testify before others to your love and your mercy; so that the world may turn to Jesus, our Saviour.”
Brothers and sisters, let us ask every day the help of Mary, Mother of Jesus, Saint Joseph, and all the saints of God – the Father, + the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us take a few moments to let the Holy Spirit renew and deepen our trust in Jesus.
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2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate of Madonna House
Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
