To Boast In The Lord

For he has never despised nor scorned the poverty of the poor. From him he has not hidden his face, but he heard the poor man when he cried.

Psalm 22:24

I have been praying recently for a dear loved one who is stuck spiritually. This person is a good person with a sincere heart, but they seem to be unable to move forward in their spiritual life and because of this it can be very hard to watch. I actually fell into despair about this and I began to question God about whether or not he was hearing my prayers. Whether or not he cared about this person. Then I read this Psalm and the Lord began to show me a few things about his nature.

This verse from Psalm 22 is a reminder that God has mercy on the poor, the physically poor as well as the spiritually poor. Some translations use the word “afflicted” instead of poor, which is simply another way of describing someone who is bound by the enemy and unable to live in the fullness of the freedom of God. The poor are the ones that Jesus dined with and whom followed him as his disciples while he was on this earth. The poor are Jesus’ friends because of the very fact that they are stuck. They have nowhere to turn and thus the Holy Spirit will meet them in that place when they are ready to surrender all to God.

The story of St. Thomas gives us some insight into the one who is spiritually poor. Thomas had heard stories of others’ experiences of the Risen Christ, but he had yet to see Christ himself. He believed to a certain extent because he remained with the Apostles. He didn’t go back home to his old way of life. Thomas doubted, but he still had faith. Thomas’ faith is what kept him from turning away from it all completely. He remained although he had not seen the Lord himself or as he says “unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).

This doubt of Thomas reminds us that we can only go so far in our faith by encountering the faith or experience of Jesus through another. God’s relationship to us is personal. That personal experience cannot be handed on to another in order for them to experience what we have experienced. Each of us is uniquely loved by the Lord and that love is expressed in an intimate and personal way to the core of our soul. While we can witness our faith to one another, each of us must get on our knees and pray, cultivating our own personal relationship with the Lord in order to experience the Risen Christ. Just as Thomas was unable to fully believe until he had his own experience of the Risen Christ, we too are the same. Our faith and our relationship with Christ is personal and must be sought out on our own accord.

For Thomas, who did have faith, although it was the size of a mustard seed, when he did experience the Risen Christ his life was changed forever. The words of Thomas have echoed down for generations “my Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). These words can be prayed by the faithful at the moment of the consecration when our Lord is raised up by the hands of the priest. St Thomas gives us hope for all those who seem to be stuck in their spiritual growth. Those who have not experienced a real personal encounter with Christ. With this hope we can continue to pray for them so that when they do finally experience the Lord they will have an experience like Thomas, one that changes their life forever.

This Psalm also reminds us that the Lord hears the cry of the poor. He does not hate our poverty, our affliction, our weakness or our blindness, for he knows that in our weakness he can make us strong.

For consider your call brethren; not many of you were wise according to the flesh, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

To the Lord, our poverty is seen as a means by which we can recognize our need for a Savior. Only from our poverty do we know that we need God. Only in our poverty are we willing to surrender our own abilities to God and rely on him alone. In our weakness, the Lord will strengthen and save, he will redeem. This is why St Paul says to boast of our weakness, because where we are weak, the Lord is able to come in and save. Our own strength will always only get us so far. It is limited and as St Paul teaches, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). With this understanding of God we have no choice, but to rely on our God who is all good and deserving of all our love. All of our weaknesses are an opportunity for God to work in and through us and for this reason we can boast of our weakness.

An important point to make is that our weakness is not the same as our sin. To be weak in the area of pride is separate from our choice to sin from that place of pride. Our weaknesses are the areas that the enemy tempts us because he knows we are weak there; the enemy sometimes knows us better that we know ourselves. It’s important for us to have self knowledge. To know of our weaknesses and our strengths so that it may all be used for the glory of God. To sin is to choose to run away from God, to choose ourselves over God, to choose self-love instead of love of God. This is always an offense against God. But our weakness, our poverty, the area in our lives that the enemy most uses to tempt us to sin is not despised by God, for God knows that in these specific areas we can experience redemption.

Even so, when we do fall, when we do sin, we can rest in the assurance of the Sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which has bought for us the forgiveness of our sins. No matter what we have done, no matter how far from God we have strayed, the Lord has power over death and he will save and redeem all things through Christ Jesus. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ!

So the next time we find ourselves in the midst of our weakness, we can hope in the Lord because we know that we have been given a choice to trust God; to prove our love for God alone. For we do not have to be slaves to our sin. We have been redeemed by Christ, but we must choose our redemption, we must choose to let God into our poverty. So instead of continuing to do it on our own, we can choose to surrender to the Lord, we can choose to suffer well, we can choose to let the Lord purify and lead us into our sanctification. In God’s abundant mercy, let us pray for the grace to seek the Lord in our poverty, so that one day we like St Paul, are able to boast of our weakness.