God Waits but Wins

July 16: Wednesday of Week 15 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Isaiah 10:5-7,13-16; Psalm 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15; Matthew 11:25-27

Thoughts to help us surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

God Waits but Wins

“You fools, when will you be wise?” Psalm 94:8

Isaiah is vivid to anyone who has seen documentaries of the Nazis in their heyday. Hitler, reviewing his jackbooted storm troopers, could say literally:

By my own power I have done it,

  and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd.

I have moved the boundaries of peoples,

  their treasures I have pillaged,

  and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned.

But we all know how it ended. Being powerful is the most dangerous condition on earth. That is why Jesus sends us to minister in weakness: “Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey… I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:9).

Paul understood this. He wrote: “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Corinthians 12:10).

When I’m right, I’m wrong;

When I’m strong, I’m weak.

When I’m weak, I’m strong;

When I’m wrong, I seek.

Jesus praised the Father because “you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to the childlike.” Need we say more?

We believe in using every human means and talent—reminding ourselves it is stupid to depend on them or count on them.

PRAY: “Lord, teach me the wisdom of the weak.”

PRACTICE: Never act alone. Act always with Christ, in Christ, through Christ.