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Writer's pictureFather Ben

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B 2024

One of the most frequently posed questions to Christianity is why does God allow suffering?  Specifically, why does God allow good people to suffer?  Much ink has been spilled and many words spoken trying to answer this question.  It is a difficult question that even faithful believers wrestle with at times.  All of us suffer and there is no comfort in this world that can take all of our suffering away.  Even the rich and famous suffer.  And if we look at Christianity as a way to remove or lessen our suffering, we will be left disappointed.  Christianity does not propose a Gospel of prosperity which claims that the more we are faithful to God the less we will suffer.  Rather, Christianity provides a new lens through which we view suffering.  There is no religion, no system of belief that is able to remove suffering.  Christianity is no exception.  Rather, we are given a new perspective on suffering that imposes upon it a new meaning.  And while this new perspective may not remove suffering, it changes the way we experience it.

St. Paul gives us a moment of vulnerability in today’s second reading.  He reveals that he has a thorn in his flesh, an angel of Satan sent to beat him.  He begged the Lord three times to take this suffering away but was instead given the words “my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

Quite frankly, no one knows exactly what St. Paul’s thorn is.  There are three possibilities as to what it might be.

First, this thorn might be St. Paul’s enemies.  There were people in Corinth who were badmouthing him, gossiping about him, criticizing him, and questioning him.  They were persistent and would not stop working against him.  St. Paul speaks about these opponents earlier in the Second Letter to the Corinthians.

Second, this thorn may have been some sort of sexual temptation that St. Paul was experiencing.  Perhaps he had some sort of moral struggle and he could not shake persistent temptation to sin.  This would explain why he describes his suffering as a thorn in the flesh.  He could be referring to temptations of the flesh.

Third, perhaps the thorn was some sort of physical malady.  In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul notes that he was experiencing some sort of bodily ailment.  There is some evidence that Paul had problems with his eyes.  We know that Paul was struck blind on the road to Damascus.  There are clues in his letters that his eyes caused him trouble for the rest of his life even though he regained his sight initially.

Ultimately, we don’t know exactly what St. Paul’s thorn in the flesh was.  Regardless, we know that he suffered.  But because St. Paul was faithful, he was given a new perspective on how to look at his sufferings.  They served to keep him close to Jesus.  If he were utterly perfect then he might have been tempted to pride and think that all the fruits of his work were the result of him and not Jesus working through him.  Paul saw the importance of dependence on God and His grace.  If he were content with his natural abilities and powers, he never would have learned to truly live a supernatural life.  The same is true for us.

We all have different thorns of the flesh.  Maybe it is a persisting conflict or difficult relationship with someone.  Maybe it is an addiction or some habitual moral struggle.  Perhaps the suffering is a physical ailment.  Whatever the case might be, these don’t have to be causes of frustration or despondency.  With the lens of faith we can look at our weaknesses and maladies as a reminder that we need Jesus.  All kinds of sufferings, even moral failings, can help us grow in humility and a recognition that in spite of it all, God can use every struggle and pain to bring about a greater good.  In fact, He only allows us to suffer as a means for greater good.  I will leave you with the words of St. Augustine:

“Not everyone who spares is a friend, nor is everyone who strikes an enemy… Love mingled with severity is better than deceit with indulgence.  It is more profitable for bread to be taken away from the hungry, if he neglects right living because he is sure of his food, than for bread to be broken to the hungry, to lead him astray into compliance with wrongdoing.  The one who confines the madman, as well as the one who rouses the lethargic, is troublesome to both but loves both.  Who could love us more than God does?  Yet he continually teaches us sweetly as well as frightens us for our good.  Often adding the most stinging medicine of trouble to the gentle remedies with which he comforts us, he tries the patriarchs, even good and devout ones, by famine; he chastises a stubborn people with heavier punishments; he does not take away from the apostle the sting of the flesh, though asked three times, so as to perfect strength in weakness.” St. Augustine, Letter 93, to Vincent

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