Everything is “a thorn in my side.” All of life’s little annoyances are like a bunch of tiny pricks.
I get St. Paul, in today’s readings. He begged the Lord 3 times to take away his burden.
I’ve been moping at God, too. Why don’t You just fix all of these little problems for me? Not yet? Well how about now. Or maybe now.
My eyes have been fixed on me and how every little thing is getting in my way.
I’ve become, as Paul said, “too elated.” Too proud. I have been looking for God, not to transform me, but to transform everything around me to fit into my perfect little worldview.
But St. Paul reminds me that God’s grace is enough for me.
It’s in these times of (very small) adversity that He wants to draw me closer to Him. It’s in these moments of (very small) sacrifice that I have the opportunity to enter into the greater sufferings of the Universal Church, and Christ’s suffering on the Cross.
These annoyances open the door to small trickles of grace.
If I allow them, the trickles will run together, and grow into a stream, a brook, a river. They will flow and rush and erode the nasty corners of my personality. They will carve away all that’s weak in me, and transform me into the person God wants me to be.
These moments of weakness, when I’m unhappy with myself, with others, with life. When it seems like thorns are pricking me with every step, these are the moments where God wishes to make me strong.
Not by changing my circumstances, but by changing me.
During Mass today, I realized my complacency in the offertory.
I write my little check and throw it in the basket while the priest prepares the gifts. I wait for him to get the offering ready – the bread and the wine. And I wait for Jesus to take over with His offering – His body and blood, His very life on the Cross.
Once again, I’m looking for Him to change everything, to suffer everything, to endure everything, to fix everything for me.
But I’m not called to be a bystander at the Mass.
At the offertory, I’m called to give more than a few dollars, then wait idly by. I’m called to be more than an onlooker.
I’m called to enter in to the sacrifice.
To give my entire self as an offering.
It’s when I unite my personal sacrifice, all that I am, in union with Jesus’ sacrifice, that when He comes to me in the Eucharist, He can truly transform me.
Then, I will be ready to accept all the graces He wants to pour out to me.
Then, He can unite me to Himself and change me from the inside out.
So my God, my Jesus, today I’m going to try to embrace all my little thorns. All my little annoyances, burdens, and sacrifices.
I acknowledge their littleness before the great sufferings of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I admit the insignificance of my small suffering before the immense pain and suffering You endured when You sacrificed Your life for me on the Cross.
Nevertheless, I lay all my burdens, my thorns, before You today.
Not to remove them, but to surrender them to You.
Please use these small sacrifices as a channel of Your grace. Please unite them to the thorns You endured during the Passion. Please change my heart to be one with Yours.
Let my crabbiness dissolve. Give me renewed forgiveness, peace, and joy.
Let me be content with adversity, like St. Paul.
Humble me, and open my eyes to the power of redemptive suffering. Unleash Your power in me – the power of virtue, the power of grace.
I want to know your Mass Takeaway too! Comment with your thoughts on the readings, your pastor’s homily, or anything that struck you during your time at Mass.
To Jesus Sincerely 