How many of you are comfortable speaking in front of a large group of people? It is said that one of the top fears that people have is public speaking. Many people who fear speaking in front of groups simply avoid it or spend sleepless nights ahead of the dreaded event. Those of you who watched the movie, “King’s Speech” will remember the scene when Prince Albert gives a closing speech at British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium. As the crowd is expecting a smooth flow of words, Prince Albert’s speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and long awkward silent pauses. For Prince Albert and later King George VI, the fear of public speaking and his stuttering were his ‘thorn in the flesh’ that St. Paul talks about today in the Second Reading. This thorn however, had deeper roots, as his speech therapist Lionel Logue discovered; the King had many painful thorns from his childhood suffering that contributed to his lack of confidence, self-imposed isolation, shame, and anxiety.
How many of us can identify with a thorn in the flesh that causes in us suffering? It can be a physical, mental, or emotional kind. A thorn could also be a habit or addiction that keeps us from living a full, joyful life. Many of us do what St. Paul did in the Second Reading; he said, “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me.” I wonder if St. Paul asked God only three times, or constantly as we do when pleading. St. Paul received an enigmatic answer from God; "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." How can God leave us in our suffering and say that His power is made perfect in our weakness? Why would God allow us to suffer in our state instead of taking the thorn away so that we may have a more pleasant time? Perhaps in the prayer that Jesus made to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane offers us an insight.
Right before he was arrested, Jesus took Peter, James, and John along with him to the Garden and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” We disciples are privileged in a certain sense to be invited by Jesus to accompany Him to the Garden of Agony. When we go through suffering because of our “thorn in the flesh,” we are placed right there in that Garden, where Jesus personally asks us to watch and pray. Why does he ask that of us? He says because we may fall into temptation without watching and praying. Right before our eyes, Jesus falls to the ground and prays, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” When Jesus returns to the disciples after praying, he finds them sleeping. And he asks them, “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?” How many of us in the face of suffering tell God, “God, why me and how long is this going to last?” That hour that Jesus asks of us is the hour where we will learn how Jesus in the midst of suffering placed all his trust in his Father, no matter the outcome. In that hour, we will learn that somehow our suffering is alleviating the suffering of our loved ones, just as Jesus’ suffering alleviated all the sufferings of his Father’s children.
St. Paul learned this secret through his “thorn in the flesh.” That’s why he said, “I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” What would have happened had Prince Albert decided that he could not become the King of England because his stuttering and fear of public speaking would have caused too much suffering? He would not have been there for his nation as a king to lead England through Hitler’s aggression during World War II. The temptation during suffering is to give up our vocation or the path that God sets out for us. That’s why Jesus teaches us, lest we fall into temptation, to watch and to pray with him during our suffering. If we follow the Father’s will, we emerge with greater trust in the Heavenly Father and greater appreciation of how our suffering mystically alleviates the suffering of our loved ones.
