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My grace is sufficient for you

(2 Cor 12:9)

        Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life; by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994)

        The Catechism tells us that grace is a free gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to become children of God and partakers of eternal life. Grace is what makes us aware of God’s presence in our lives. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us that he begged the Lord three times to remove the “thorn in the flesh” that was given to him. But God told him: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Let us reflect on the meaning of these words and see how during our moments of weakness and loneliness, God’s grace works to give a deeper meaning into our lives.

        Paul tells us that in human frailty, divine power is made more evident. When we are weakest, that is when God’s grace works most powerfully. Grace has the power to transform our weakness, our distress, and our loneliness into an occasion for us to experience in a very intimate way the presence of a loving and merciful God. 

My brothers and sisters, I know that many of us are experiencing loneliness at this time. School has closed and our spouses and children have gone back to Manila for a two-month vacation. This is an annual ritual for all of us that we use to take for granted before we became members of the community of Couples for Christ. Our families were not as close then as we are now. Before Couples for Christ, we could easily bury ourselves in office work and in golf or tennis, and before we knew it, the two months were over and our families were back in Jakarta.

All these have changed. Since joining Couples for Christ, we have become very close as a family. As husbands and wives, we serve in the community together. Our children are all members of the Family Ministries. We pray together. We play together. We serve together. But now we find ourselves alone. Burying ourselves in work, golf or tennis does not work as well as before. We miss the cries of our children. We miss the hug of our spouses. We miss the sound of their voices and laughter. This is our “thorn in the flesh.”

During this time that we are living alone in Jakarta, I urge you, my brothers, to devote more time to Scripture reading, prayer and reflection. Like you I have been working longer hours in the office and playing more tennis at this time that Jean and the children are in Manila. But eventually I find myself alone in a big house with no one to share my dinner with. And so I try my best to devote more time to Scripture reading and reflection. In fact, now I have found time to review the daily prayer notes that I wrote during the past years. There are a few entries in the prayer journal that I should like to share with you. These words touched me then and they still touch me now. I hope that they will also touch you in a special way.

10 January 1993 (Sunday): One cannot read the Bible and remain unmoved. The Word of God is like a force that permeates into the innermost recesses of one’s mind and touches the minutest fiber of one’s heart. It is like a fire that consumes one’s whole being and purifies one’s soul.

12 January 1993 (Tuesday): If we turn our attention to God, we will encounter Him. If we encounter Him, we will be changed.

16 January 1993 (Saturday): I attended the Saturday anticipated Mass, my first Mass in Jakarta since I arrived. The responsorial psalm was: “Here I am Lord! I come to do your will.” Indeed, it is God’s plan that we come back to Jakarta.

        My brothers and sisters, this is also the time of the year when many work contracts end. In fact a number of our brothers and sisters have already left Jakarta. A few more will be leaving soon. We always experience a great deal of sadness whenever some of our brothers and sisters leave us permanently. What makes it even harder for us is the fact that some of them have just started living renewed lives in Jesus and we are not sure if they can find or be integrated into a CFC community in their new place of assignment. Just when they have started enjoying their life and service in Couples for Christ, just when we have started to build a relationship with them, we see them leaving. It is therefore not surprising that during our prayer meetings, we hear each other pray earnestly to God to please allow this brother or this sister to stay some more time in Jakarta, to allow them to serve with us a little bit longer in the community of Couples for Christ, to allow them to grow some more in their relationship with Jesus before making them leave us.

        Living alone in a foreign land feeling homesick and missing the company of friends who have left Jakarta permanently, we turn to God. And we find that He is always with us. He always keeps our company. He makes us hear His gentle voice. He makes us feel His loving presence. He assures us that our families love us. He tells us that He will take care of our friends who have left. And most of all, He comforts us with the power of His words. God does not remove our “thorn in the flesh”, but He pours His graces to give us strength and consolation.

My brothers and sisters, during times like this, I find solace reflecting on the word of God. I find comfort in His words in 2 Cor 12:9.  Then, though alone, I no longer feel lonely. I enjoin you therefore to read the Scriptures and reflect on 2 Cor 12:9. And I am certain that you will find that, in our solitude, God’s grace is all we need.

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