Are We Weak Enough?

At a conference titled “The Passion of the Christ: The Joy of Suffering!” one of the Sisters of Life said something that impacted me. She said “I am not strong enough, but I am weak enough.” Most of us believe we have to be strong enough through our suffering, be competent and contained at all times. Our struggles and suffering is something that has to be overcome and/or get over.

The Christian response to suffering is not the cultures; we know of original sin and our own, that only Christ can bring meaning and purpose through struggle. We are suffering our own passion, on the way to wholeness. Christians are not fools, searching for pain, but we are asked by the Lord to let Him, our Joy, help us take up our cross when there is no other way.

Simon from Cyrene was made to help carry Jesus’ cross when Jesus physically could not, there was no other way. The Creator of the Universe needed, in His humanity, a man from Cyrene to help Him get to His crucifixion: the path given by God to make the world anew. This lesson applies to us in the same way; we are asked to be weak enough to let God help us carry what has been given us, when there is no other way. “I am not strong enough, but I am weak enough” is an attitude taught by God to us, so that we try to leave room for Him to put on His shoulders what we can not, for we have learned there is no other way.

There was a prayer said at the conference that I hope we can say today and everyday:

Lord, I can not
You must
I am yours
Show me the way