Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 8 July 2012

The Mystery of God's Apparent Powerlessness

        Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by
the experience of evil and suffering.  God can sometimes seem to
be absent and incapable of stopping evil.  But in the most mysterious
way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary
humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil.
Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men."  It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that
the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power
in us who believe."

        Only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty
power.  This faith glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself
Christ's power.  The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith,
for she believed that  "nothing will be impossible with God," and was
able to magnify the Lord:  "For he who is mighty has done great things
for me, and holy is his name."..

        "Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding
it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God.  Once our
reason has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily and
without any hesitation admit everything that [the Creed] will afterwards
propose for us to believe -- even if they be great and marvelous things,
far above the ordinary laws of nature."

                                                -- Catechism of the Catholic Church
                                                        paragraphs 272-274

You know well, my God,
that in all my miseries
I have never failed to recognize
your great power and mercy.
May it help me
that I have not offended in this.
Give me back the time i have lost
by granting me your grace
both in the present
and in the future.
                -- Saint Teresa of Avila
                        (1515-1582)