Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

The Power of Weakness

The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23:11, 12

God chose to enter into human history in complete weakness. That divine choice forms the center of the Christian faith. In Jesus of Nazareth, the powerlessness of God appeared among us to unmask the illusion of power, to disarm the prince of darkness who rules the world, and to bring the divided human race to a new unity. It is through total and unmitigated powerlessness that God shows us divine mercy. The radical, divine choice is the choice to reveal glory, beauty, truth, peace, joy, and, most of all, love in and through the divestment of power. It is very hard – if not impossible – for us to grasp this divine mystery. We keep praying to the “almighty and powerful God.” But all might and power is absent from the one who reveals God to us saying: “When you see me, you see the Father.” If we truly want to love God, we have to look at the man of Nazareth, whose life was trapped in weakness. And his weakness opens for us the way to the heart of God.

Lord, how I fret and stew! I accept that some worries are part of being human. But I know many of my worries would evaporate if I learned to trust you more.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, Renewed FOR LIFE

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