❤️ THE “WEAKNESS” OF LOVE ❤️
(Monday, September 4)
“Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing.” (2 Cor 12:10-11)
How can we relate to what St. Paul is saying here? Through love. He loves Christ and he loves these people, the Corinthians, to the point of “becoming a fool” (as he mentions above) in what he calls “boasting,” but what seems to me (sorry St. Paul) to be him just trying to prove his love for them. He’s like, Look, I am worthy of your love no less than the other apostles! And he realizes this makes him look weak and vulnerable or needy of love, so he calls himself a “fool,” but this is his love for them speaking. And of course it is not a weakness. And St. Paul actually knows this, which is why says he is strong when he is weak (through love).
Love is a strength, and we shouldn’t be embarrassed to tell those we love that we love them. As the Little Prince’s rose finally says to him, when she becomes mature and wise, “Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while.” By the prayers of St. Paul, Lord, give us the courage to love one another, and to not fear being diminished by it.
