Kulandai Albert csc –
Readings: Acts 28: 16-20, 30-31; Jn 21: 20-25
No human weakness or limitation can hinder God’s work. This is the assurance from today’s liturgy of the word. The resurrection of the body was ancient Israel’s hope, but not the hope of ancient Greece or Rome.
The God of Israel fulfilled this hope by first raising Jesus the Messiah from the dead. So, Paul’s ministry was precisely the preaching about the risen Christ, and it was for this reason, he was in chains. Yet, no human weakness or limitation could hinder him from doing God’s work. Just like what most people say, “Everything happens for a reason,” in many of the things that we do, we don’t always get the outcome that we expect because God has laid out plans for each one of us.
Nevertheless, trusting in Him enables us to be strong in our will towards the circumstances that we encounter, both pleasant and unpleasant. Paul’s trust in Jesus strengthened him to preach the good news in-spite of his weakness and limitation. In the gospel Jesus reveals that no human weakness or limitation can hinder a person from doing God’s work. Jesus’s disciples were ordinary people with weakness and limitation, yet that never was a hindrance to do God’s work.
In Jesus’ life, not only did God became man and lived in humility, but while living in humility he fully lived a life as a human. He was hungry, tired, needy, and weak in his flesh, but despite being weak he fulfilled all the prophecies spoken about the Messiah. Therefore, no weakness or limitation will prevent us from doing God’s will. Let us pray for the grace that we may be led by our faith and trust in the Lord when our human weakness and limitation fail us to do God’s work.