Skip to main content

Let our weakness occasion strength

IF we believe in what St. Paul once said that it is “when I am weak, that I am strong,” (2 Cor 12,10) then there must be something good in our weakness, whatever form it may take.

If we follow his logic that “the foolish things of the world has God chosen, that he may confound the wise, and the weak things of the world has God chosen, that he may confound the strong,” (1 Cor 1,27) then indeed the goodness of weakness must indeed be something.

Christ himself affirmed so in his beatitudes. He considered as blessed those who are poor in spirit, meek, those who mourn, who hunger and thirst for justice, who are merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, those who are persecuted and reviled.

In many other instances in the gospel, he praised the little children, gave special attention and healing to those with all kinds of affliction. He even raised the dead. He fraternized with sinners and what are generally regarded as the scum of the earth.

What peeved him were the proud and the self-righteous, or those described by St. Paul as “enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” (Phil 3,18)

Yet, in spite of all these, Christ was willing to die for all of us, assuming in the process all our weaknesses and sinfulness for all time and dying to them, so we may have a way to rise with him in his glorious resurrection, already freed of all of them.

We have to remember that our true dignity as persons and as children of God can only be attained and recovered through Christ. Yes, we also have to give our all in recovering that dignity, lost by sin, but all that effort would tantamount to nothing unless united with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, renewed sacramentally in the Mass.

All this does not mean that we have to be cavalier in our attitude toward our sinfulness and weaknesses. On the contrary, we have to be dead serious in avoiding and removing them. What it means is that whatever may be our warts and faults, there is always hope. God, being a true father, is always willing to forgive.

In fact, we can manage somehow to be happy when we notice and experience our weaknesses and sinfulness, since in that way we attract the attention of Christ. As Good Shepherd, he is always at the lookout for the lost sheep.

What we have to avoid is to deal with our weaknesses and sinfulness by our lonesome, relying only our own powers and devices, which though impressive will never cope with the evil of our weaknesses and sinfulness without God.

What we have to do when we see our weaknesses and sinfulness is to go to God, to run to him, making acts of contrition and atonement, especially going to the sacrament of confession, because that is how we regain God’s grace, the source of our true strength.

Let’s try to avoid the example of Cain who after killing his brother fled from God and became a fugitive. Let’s follow the example of the prodigal son who in his lowest depth of dissipation decided to go back to his father and was roundly welcomed.

God as our father provides us with everything. He has given us our life, our health, our natural needs. He has made the masterpiece of his creation, making us image and likeness of his, children of his.

And as father, he does even more. He is willing to forgive us, to provide us with what we need most—his mercy, since we cannot help but abuse his goodness and fall into sin and suffer the consequences.

On our part, we should do at least the minimum that can be expected of a creature who thinks, judges and executes things. We ought to be sorry for our sins, making acts of contrition, atonement and reparation, and making confession a regular habit.

In this we have imitate Christ who did all this by dying on the cross. No wonder he tells us that if we want to follow him, we have to deny ourselves and carry the cross too. We die with him to be able to rise with him too.


Let’s strengthen our hope and trust in God’s mercy especially during this Lent. For where sin has abounded, God’s grace has abounded even more. This is where our weakness can occasion strength.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.