Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:6-10
“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pain and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities, and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace.”
Rose of Lima (1586-1617) in Ascent as recounted Milton Walsh in Witness of the Saints: Patristic Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012) 526.
If this post sounds crazy, then maybe read today’s Scripture and soak in the gift of pain and afflictions. As I rest from my work, I report an attitude adjustment. It’s humbling to admit.
I think I have tried to avoid weaknesses, insults, pain, and hardships to remain strong, and the Lord is teaching me to delight in them for only when I am weak and receive His grace am I strong.
And as I ponder what generosity looks like, I feel the Lord whisper to me that the world needs to see this. It saw Paul and needs to see each of us to set an example of delighting in pain and afflictions.
This is not some weird, warped, or sadistic mindset, but rather, it is one that has tasted and want to share with others what Rose of Lima speaks of, namely, “the unfathomable treasure of grace.”