"For whenever I am weak, then I am strong"

As we try to follow Jesus and develop our spiritual life, we are often frustrated when we seem to take a step forward and then fall back into committing the same errors and faults. Why is this so? Today's first reading from Genesis 2:4-9, gives us an answer which can give us hope. We read, ''The Lord fashioned man of dust from the soil.Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and thus man became a living being.'' That is our human condition. God is breathing his divine life into our human weakness. As Matthew puts it clearly in 26;41, ''The spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak.'' Jesus himself lived in our human life and knows the struggles we go through. ''If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me.'' (Mark 8:34). I often wonder if the cross that Jesus asks us to take up is that very weakness of our human condition. Even though it sometimes causes us to fail, we cannot let it stop us from following Jesus. He says that he will not leave us orphans and that he will ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to help us and always be with us.(John14:16,18). St Paul was so conscious of his own weakness. ''A thorn was given to me in the flesh to keep me from being too elated.Three times I begged the Lord to make this suffering go away. But he replied, ''My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. So I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ will dwell in me. For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.'' ( 2 Corinthians 12:7-10) Thank you, Paul, for those encouraging words.