Homily

In today’s epistle St. Paul writes about his escape from arrest in the city of Damascus and about his ecstatic heavenly vision. He says that fourteen years earlier someone in Christ was caught up to the third heaven. Of course, he’s speaking about himself, but he puts it in the third person “a man in Christ” because he wants them to know he’s not boasting about himself in order to make them think that he is trying to look important because of it. Was he in his body (i.e., physically transported) or out of his body (perhaps just his soul experienced this movement)? It was a deeply mystical experience which, of course, St. Paul finds it very difficult to explain. He writes that he went up to the third heaven. They called the atmosphere the first heaven, the stars were the second heaven, and the third heaven is where God dwells. He doesn’t claim that he saw God necessarily but that he was very, very close to the Divine Presence. The experience was so profoundly glorious that he cannot even begin to find the words to express what it was like to be there. He attributes this great kindness not because of anything that he has done but because of God’s generous mercy.

Next, Paul speaks of the famous “thorn in the flesh” which he says was given to him in order to keep him humble. Thousands and thousands of pages have been written trying to explain what this thorn in the flesh may have been. Was it some sort of sexual temptation, or some psychological condition or was it a physical disease or some kind of health problem. We don’t know. He prays to Jesus and asks Him to remove this thorn, but the Lord tells him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So the Lord refuses his request—but why? So that His power can be experienced by St. Paul.

And that’s an interesting and I think a very true point. Paul was a man of many talents, not to mention his ability to endure many harsh and difficult situations. But it’s not his wish to show people what a great and awesome person he is. Instead he wants to show them Christ, he wants to give them Christ, and Christ is not best seen if Paul is standing in the way. God’s loving kindness and His power are most clearly seen in the weakness of a person, not in their strength.

Life is constantly presenting us with challenges. A few months ago, Bishop asked me how things were going, and I answered that the eparchy has a few problems. He said, “There are always problems. We can never get away from problems.” It is a simple observation but a very true statement. To get through life we try to conquer and solve the problems we face, and those problems come to us from so many directions. They can be about our health, or our mental state or our emotions. They can come to us from other people—spouse, children, parents, friends, co-workers, strangers. Problems can come to us from events in our family, at work, in our state or our government and they can come to us because of situations that are taking place in different parts of the world. We are a people who are constantly facing problems from “I can’t get the lid off this jar of pickles” to “What if North Korea tries to send a nuclear bomb here” to “what are those small jabs of pain in my chest?” We can’t do much about North Korea, but maybe we can get this lid off of this jar. And so we go. We spend a great deal of time and energy trying to solve all the problems in our lives, and there is nothing necessarily wrong with that. If you want to eat pickles, you need to get the lid off of the jar. The problem with problems is when we think, or we live as though, life is largely about solving problems. As Bishop noted, “There are always problems.” Always. So in the midst of all the problems we face now, and the problems we will face tomorrow, how shall I live? St. Paul advises that we live not in the hope of solving all of our problems, but rather that we live in Christ, even as we face our problems. It is only in our weakness and humility that we can find room for Jesus. We don’t like feeling weak and we find it difficult to be humble, so it is not always so easy to find greater room for Jesus in our lives. But He says, as He said to St. Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness.” Is that so?

We can go all our lives trying to solve and beat one problem, one trouble, one difficulty after another, and even at our last moment to take just one more breath before we leave this life, but what does it all amount to if we do it without Christ, without His grace, without His power to save? If He is not our strength, if He is not our hope, if He is not the one we turn to in every problem and in every success as well, then we stand alone by whatever strength we can find for ourselves. There will always be problems, but let us face every problem with Christ, because one way or another, all problems will eventually come to an end. Where will we be at that time if not with the Lord? There will always be problems and yet we always are capable of living in the life of Him Who conquered the two greatest of all problems: the power of sin and death. May He always be our true and real strength.