A VICTORY OF WEAKNESS – 1 COR 1:22-25
“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
Love is a victory of weakness.
This is a mysterious, hidden truth,
yet hidden not because you conceal it, loving God,
but because we do not know where to seek.
We seek for meaning in our successes,
we hope for sanctity through our strength,
we rely on our efforts, our resolves,
but when the cracks, through these,
begin to show through—then, Father,
then you come to meet us in vulnerability.
The first word of the Gospel proclamation
is “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Yes, blessed are those who, in their hearts,
rely not on their own strength or understanding,
but on you, most merciful God, alone.
Blessed are those who are too little
to achieve the great things that others have done,
but who rather find themselves faltering day by day,
but continue to walk in filial trust,
or, rather, to let you hold them and carry them
in the tenderness of your paternal embrace.
Love is a victory of weakness,
and weakness is but a place of encounter,
the place where the heart, defenseless,
opens itself to encounter the gift of Another.
Do not flee from this place, little child!
Here your loving God awaits you.
Yes, here he is loving you unceasingly,
sustaining you by his grace, his presence.
Holiness does not consist in having strength
to “go it alone,” to stand on one’s own two feet,
but in being utterly poor, totally dependent,
on the Father who upholds you in his arms.
Look, look to Jesus…and you will see.
For him, maturity does not mean autonomy,
growing up in order to be independent of the Father.
No, rather he remains always but a Child,
and from his very dependency he can say:
“I have power to lay down my life,
and I have power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”
You see? For Jesus, dependence and independence
are simply one and the same mystery—
for he lives, he acts, he works, he speaks,
at every moment, from the place of intimacy
where he dwells in union with his Father.
And what is this place of intimacy
but the place of vulnerability,
the place…yes…of weakness—
in which the heart of each is defenseless,
exposed before the other Person.
And in this vulnerable encounter,
the Two are One, inseparably united,
in the Spirit who is pure vulnerable Gift,
binding them together in enduring Strength.