I lived next to dear friends of mine when I first moved to Thibodaux. They are a beautiful family with 6 children, each with their own unique gifts and personalities. It was a great blessing for me to be a part of their lives and the kids definitely were great teachers for me, simply by the nature of their just being children. I remember a particular reminder that came through little Mabrey one day.
Mabrey was 5 years old at the time. She had dressed as St. Joan of Arc for All Saints day months earlier and everything about the saint really stuck with her. Nearly every day she would put on some part of the costume and would often say, “you know, I AM Joan of Arc”! One day she was marching through the yard wearing her full ‘Joan of Arc’ gear…. helmet; sword; breastplate; quite serious demeanor. She was intensely moving her sword back and forth while marching, as she was yelling “I’m here to slay the dragon. I’m here to slay the dragon”! Well, right on the heels of this procession, she came to stand next to me. As we stood there, this little gecko ran up right in front of her, as if it was looking right at her. Well that serious ‘dragon-slaying Joan of Arc’ quickly returned to an alarmed little girl as she jumped behind me, wrapping her arms around my leg and yelling “get it, get it”!
I think often as we take the daily journey of becoming missionary disciples, we can be a lot like Mabrey was that day. Perhaps there is some means by which Christ offers us a perspective of the goodness and the horizon that is before us and we are filled with hope. Sometimes through a word of scripture, a conversation, a homily, we are filled with enthusiasm for what is possible with God. And, this enthusiasm often can fuel a zeal in our hearts, which is from God. Like Mabrey, we feel like marching through the yard with her sword, we are READY! As I’ve talked to many people on various Commissions, I hear this zeal, this excitement for the possibilities of where God is leading us. And our hearts long for this renewal and are filled with hope that it is happening.
Then, we can go back to our parishes with the real challenges that remain there or what seems like limitations in our resources. Or we experience difficulties in our families or work and in all of these situations, we come face to face with our weakness or the weakness of others. Our weakness has a way of moving us from feeling the strength we felt in the zeal to simply being utterly in touch with how very small we are.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, the question is, when we recognize our weakness, what do we do with that? Do we allow the accompanying whispers of temptation to lead us into discouragement, or even frustration with ourselves or those around us? Or do we simply look to the Lord, trusting He is one who will act and provide for all that we need? The Lord helps us to remember, we need not be afraid of our weaknesses, personally or communally. For the Lord is near to us in those places, in fact His compassionate heart is drawn to the sweet fragrance of our weakness. Perhaps to help us, we could all look to St. Paul whom the Lord used in a mighty way, clearly as one of the greatest missionary disciples of all time. St. Paul never boasted of his outward achievements or what he had accomplished. He never listed off all of his successes. Rather, he always pointed to what God had worked in and through him…. what it was that GOD had accomplished. In a General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI said of St. Paul, “he does not boast of his own actions but of the activity of Christ who acts precisely through his weakness.” He later says, “Therefore, to the extent that our union with the Lord increases and that our prayers become more intense, we also go to the essential and understand that it is not the power of our own means, our virtues, our skills that brings about the Kingdom of God but that it is God who works miracles precisely through our weakness, our inadequacy for the task. We must therefore have the humility not to trust merely in ourselves, but to work, with the Lord’s help in the Lord’s vineyard, entrusting ourselves to him as fragile “earthen vessels”.
In 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, St Paul says, “I will rather boast most gladly of my weakness, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.” It is PRECICELY there, in our weakness that we can boast! Not in our strength but, in our weakness and in our need. Because when we recognize our need, our weakness, we can come to the most truthful realization, that we are in need of God… that His grace IS sufficient. May we remember that any desire we have of a renewal in the Church, is a desire of ours because it was first a desire of His. He can be trusted.
Houma-Thibodaux, may we remember that God loves Bethlehem. In other words, He chose to come and dwell with us in the smallest, most humble of places. He teaches us that we too must become small in posture. In Bethlehem, He shows us that He chose to provide when the outward circumstances seemed impossible. This is God’s nature. He shows us that every difficulty can be overcome by opening up to trust in His action! As we remain small in posture, imagine how He is looking at us, here in this little Bethlehem, this small diocese, in need of Him. How much His heart is ready to respond to us in our every need!
Today, may we pray for the grace to remain small in posture and faithful to Him in all things. Today, can we all begin to ask Him more intensely to respond to our needs here in this diocese. Today, can we all trust that He is ready to respond to our need!
For today’s prayer: 2 Cor 12:1-10
Written by Kristin Niedbala
www.htdiocese.org/sp
www.htdiocese.org/sp
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