Earthen Vessels

St. Paul waxes poetic today in the passage we read from the Second Letter to the Corinthians: We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:8-11)

I have long maintained that St. Paul would understand the apostolate of CUSA, perhaps more than any other sacred writer. The little we know of St. Paul's biography gives us some indication of why this is so. St. Paul's philosophical background and classical education gives him the tools to reflect upon and write about our human condition. We know that he suffered from some chronic illness, but we have very little evidence to help us ascertain exactly what that was. Nonetheless, it is clear that St. Paul clearly understands that our human nature is frail, subject to illness and disability, and mortal. In the beginning of his writing - namely, the First Letter to the Thessalonians - St. Paul betrays his opinion that he will live to see the second coming of Jesus. However, it does not take him long to realize that he was mistaken in this thought. He spends himself completely in the task of preaching the Gospel, so much so that his body is simply worn out by the effort. His body, like every other human beings, is a frail, "earthen" vessel, a lump of clay out of which God has fashioned an instrument which can be used for good or ill.

Human frailty is God's design to help us realize that our efforts account for nothing, that it is God who acts through us. So many of the saints who have gone before us practiced penances and mortifications to subdue and tame the natural instincts of the human body for pleasure and self-gratification. For those of us who suffer from chronic illness and/or disability, such acts are simply a part of our daily living with weakness and pain. We are, like every other human being, in the process of dying so that Christ's Gospel may live on. Our purpose in suffering is, like St. Paul's, an opportunity to spread the Gospel, to participate in the evangelization of the peoples and nations with which we share this corner of the universe.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator