Last week, when preaching I drew from the first reading, from the Book of Wisdom to assert, that:
God did not make death, nor does he
rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being
God does not wish death, or suffering in the world, I had preached, and if at all there is death in the world, once again drawing from the reading from the Book of Wisdom, I had pointed out that death entered the world by the envy of the devil.
And yet, today, in the second reading, we encounter something that seems to be contrary to both my preaching, as well as the Book of Wisdom. St Paul tells us that:
a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.
Here, in the second reading there is a suggestion that the thorn in the flesh, or his sufferings and trials and persecutions, were the result of an angel of Satan, given by God Himself! So, what is going on here? Are God and the Devil working in concert?
Brothers and sisters, what we need to understand is that God does not wish death, nor evil. If there is death and evil in the world it is because of the Devil, and because we cooperate with the Devil and his minions. What is true that God in His infinite wisdom, a wisdom which we cannot hope to fully comprehend, permits evil in the world. But, if He allows evil, it is because He can also draw good out of it.
Dealing with similar questions that may have occurred to the people of his time, St. Augustine, the saintly bishop of Hippo wrote:
"And so," they ask, "is the devil good because he is useful?" On the contrary, he is evil insofar as he is the devil, but God who is good and almighty draws many just and good things out of the devil's malice. For the devil has to his credit only his will by which he tries to do evil, not the providence of God that draws good out of him.
“The Providence of God draws good out of him” him being the devil. So how does God do this? The second reading of the day tells us how God draws good out of evil. He does so, by providing His Grace to the weak and sinners.
What then are the sources of His Grace?
The first of this answer all of you are well aware of, which is why you are here at this Sunday mass. You are not here because you have come to a Sunday social event, or because you have nothing else to do – God knows you have enough and more work, and yet you carve out the time to come to Mass. You come for Mass because you know, as the Catechismof the Catholic Church teaches us, that the sacrifice of the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life (CCC 1324).
The Eucharist offers us the possibility of incorporating Christ into ourselves, His flesh becomes our flesh, and this give us the strength to avoid sin, and persevere in a holy life.
There is a young man I know, who once said to me and a group of friends: “I don’t need to go for Mass, I am a good person, I know what to do.” It so turns out that this young man, so full of promise and potential is now wasting his life away, precisely because, rely solely on his own powers and capacities, and lacking in a regular supply of Grace, he does not have the capacity to act with Grace and triumph over his troubles.
The other sources of Grace are the rest of the Sacraments, and I would particularly highlight the Grace that we can obtain from the sacrament of confession. I can give you my own example; I had not confessed for years – for one reason or the other – and subsequent to the confession I eventually made, and then became regular at, I realised the value of the Grace that is given to us through this sacrament to persevere on the road of a good Christian life.
Brothers and sisters, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good confession in building up the life of Grace, and more critically, that it is an important pit stop before we receive communion – remember that we cannot, and must not, receive communion if we are not in a state of grace.
In the Gospel of Matthew (26:41), when Our Lord found His disciples sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane counseled His disciples:
Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
It is because our Lord knows that the Spirit is willing, but the Flesh weak, that – as St. Paul tells us today – He permits, temptation and suffering, to strengthen our flesh, because He knows that His Grace is sufficient to overcome temptation. And therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, even when we fall, when we have given in to temptation, even if we have committed a sin that we think no one could forgive us, we must remember that we are provided with the Grace necessary to get up, dust ourselves off, and continue along the path.
I pray to Our Lord that until we meet next Sunday you persevere in His Love and grow in His Grace.
(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda on 6 July 2024.
Image: 'Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus', Diego Velázquez , c.1617-1618, National Gallery of Ireland.)
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