7/8/18: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Should We Be Scandalized by Weakness?

Today's Gospel gives us the scene in Jesus's life where he is preaching to the people of his hometown, who end up rejecting him. He is not able to perform many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Why do his fellow townspeople reject him? It's because they detect in him the weakness of ordinariness. How often do we reject others because of their human weakness? And what is our attitude to our own weakness? In today's 2nd reading from 2nd Corinthians we hear that Paul begged God to take his weakness from him. And what was God's response? "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." May we not reject our own weakness or the weakness of others; may we see how God can show himself to be strong in its midst.