Growing up my parents taught me a cultural moral value
that I continue to practice everywhere, every day, and whenever the opportunity
comes. That moral value is that young people must help the elders of their
community. Whenever I see any elderly person, I run to help. Because it has
become the moral duty that I have to perform. However, in my first year in the
US, I struggled with this moral value as I was trying to integrate myself into
the community. I often ran to my elderly confreres who were trying to do
something, and they often rejected my help saying: “No! thanks! I can do it.”
In the end, I learned that allowing someone to help you is a sign that you are
either too weak or old enough to go to a nursing home. What is going on in this
story is that no one wants to recognize that he or she is weak enough to be
helped. Thus, only the person who recognizes his or her weaknesses can accept
the help that others are offering. How many of us are rejecting the help of the
Holy Spirit in our lives? How many of us are unable to recognize that they are
weak and need help? This is where I find the invitation that today's second
reading is offering us. This invitation is to recognize our weaknesses and
allow the Holy Spirit to help us.
Therefore, one of the main reasons that we do not pray
as frequently as we should is our pride. We do not pray as fervently as we
ought because we do not recognize how weak we are. If we knew ourselves to be
weak, we would always come to the Lord and crying out for His strength. We fail
to pray because we think that we are strong enough to handle life without God.
This implies that we do not need Christ in our lives because of our strength.
Jesus has nothing to do with us because we are self-sufficient.
And Jesus came for the weak, not for the strong. If we
want to meet Jesus, we should go to the weak. He or she who knows his or her
weaknesses knows himself or herself better. If we want to meet God who lives in
us, we should discover where our weaknesses are. Hence, let us stop searching
for God and search for weaknesses. Let us stop searching God’s will and search
where our hearts are. “And the one who searches hearts knows what the intention
of the Spirit is.” God does not confront us or condemn us for being weak.
Rather, He sends His Spirit to help us in our weakness. And so, God tells, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
And enjoin our voices to that of St. Paul and say, “Most gladly, therefore, I
will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in
me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with
distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I
am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9b-10). In other words, anytime I boast
on my strength, I am running away from God's grace. I am no longer fit to
receive the help of God.
God graciously gives the Holy Spirit to help us by interceding for us in our weakness. For, “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” (Rom. 8:26) So, the Spirit helps us by praying for us in our weakness. What an encouragement!
Also, “And the one who searches hearts knows what is
the intention of the Spirit because he intercedes for the holy ones according
to God’s will.” (Rom. 8:27) This statement implies that the Spirit takes our
deepest feelings and unexpressed needs to the Father, who understands everything
perfectly. Hence, let us stop searching for God elsewhere and search for
weaknesses. Let us stop searching for God’s will and search where our hearts
are. If we find our hearts, our prayers should come from these hearts. If we
find our weakness, they should become the reason for our faith in God.
This an assurance that we are not alone in our
struggles. This is an affirmation that we are sons and daughters of God because
God’s Spirit is in our hearts, and It constantly prays with and for us. The questions
that remain to be answered individually or communally are: do I profess that I
am a child of God? Do I recognize and acknowledge that God’s spirit lives in my
heart? What is then my main hindrance to prayer? How can I overcome it?
By Fr. Ouwakpare Victorin Oussoi, SVD.
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