Beset by weakness

This was the title of an article by a regular columnist of the Catholic News (Singapore) in early November. Fr. Ronald Rolheiser writes on spirituality. A recent lecture of a spiritual formation program I am involved in deals with spiritual 'dark nights'. One of the things we were asked to prayerfully ponder is "...to what degree are you tempted to have a 'ministry of consolation' in which you are tempted to minister out of your strength..ask the Lord what it would look like to minister out of weakness so that his strength could be perfected in you". This is a strange question to many - after all, don't strengths get us where we want to go....on the other hand, we know how vulnerable and helpless we are when we experience our weakness.......

Rolheiser writes: "How was Jesus weak and how are we meant to be weak? The weakness that Scripture attributes to Jesus is not the weakness of moral failure or sin. Jesus was weak in that his sensitivity and love prevented him from protecting himself against pain. Because he loved deeply he felt things deeply, both joy and pain. Sensitive people suffer more than others because their sensitivity leaves them vulnerable and unable to seal themselves off against pain - their own, that of their loved ones, and that of the world.

John of the Cross, the great doctor of mysticism, uses the question: How vulnerable and weak are we? as an important criterion to judge whether or not we are on the right path in following Christ. We enter more deeply into life, he submits, when we try to imitate the motivation of Christ. But how do we know whether we are doing that or are simply deluding ourselves? His answer: If I am truly imitating Christ, I can expect to experience in my life the things Jesus experienced in hi, namely, a certain vulnerability that leaves me incapable of protecting myself against certain kinds of pain...I will find myself 'weak' in the same ways that Jesus was weak - more liable to physical pain and weariness, more sensitive to human rejection and contempt, more affected by love and hate, more pained over the state of things....Proper sensitivity lays bare the heart and leaves it vulnerable. That doesn't always make you look good, but that's okay. The best people in the world don't always look good."

If only we could hear this message more often in our churches. It seems like people often have to go around being "okay" to show they have faith, even in difficult circumstances. If only we could embrace and share our common humanity more easily and find others who are able to listen compassionately, without trying to provide simplistic solutions. What might it be to live/minister out of weakness, that the strength of Christ is revealed? The apostle Paul has shared with us his way. Each of us is called to this "graced weakness", in unique ways, ways we can share with others.