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From: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Visions and Revelations

[7] And to keep me [Paul] from being too elated by the abundance of revelations,
a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep
me from being too elated. [8] Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it
should leave me; [9] but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my po-
wer is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weak-
nesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] For the sake of Christ,
then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and ca-
lamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

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Commentary:

7-10. Displaying admirable humility, St Paul now refers to the weakness God al-
lowed him to experience to ensure his supernatural gifts did not make him proud.
It is impossible to say what exactly the “thorn in his flesh” was. Some Fathers —
St Augustine, for example—and modern commentators think that it was some
particularly painful and humiliating physical ailment, possibly the same one as
he refers to in Galatians 4:13f, where he also speaks in general terms. Others,
like St John Chrysostom, are of the view that he is referring to the pain which
continual persecution caused him. Others—from St Gregory the Great onwards
— opt for an ascetical interpretation; they say he is referring to temptations to do
with conscience; but the supporters of the two other theses argue, for example,
that it is unlikely that St Paul would have mentioned anything of that kind, be-
cause it could have given his enemies ammunition for further attacks.

St Paul asked God to take this “thorn” away, but the heavenly answer he re-
ceived is very revealing: God’s grace is enough to enable him to cope with this
difficulty—which serves to reveal God’s power. And so it is that he boasts of and
is content with his weaknesses and the persecution he suffers: in these circum-
stances he is stronger than ever, thanks to God’s supernatural help.

When commenting on this passage, St Thomas explains that God sometimes
permits certain kinds of evil in order to draw out greater good: for example, in or-
der to protect people from pride—the root of all vices — he sometimes allows his
chosen ones to be humiliated by an illness, or a defect, or even by mortal sin, in
order that “the person who is humbled in this way might recognize that he cannot
stand firm by his own efforts alone. Hence it is said in Romans 8:28, ‘We know
that in everything God works for good with those who love him’—not of course that
God seeks the sin but [the sinner’s] turning to him” (”Commentary on 2 Cor, ad
loc.”).

7. “A messenger of Satan”, an angel of Satan: this is how he describes the hu-
miliating “thorn”. This suggests that the disability could have been seen as an
obstacle to his work of evangelization—which the devil, logically, would have been
keen to frustrate (cf. 2:11; 11:14f).

8-10. Christians can learn a great deal about the ascetical struggle from these
words. They remind us, on the one hand, of the need to ask the Lord to help us
when we experience difficulties, and at the same time to be full of trust and to
abandon ourselves to God, who knows what is best for us. “The Lord is good”,
St Jerome teaches, “because he often does not give us what we desire, in or-
der to give us something we would prefer” (”Epist. ad Paulinum”).

The passage also shows us what attitude we should take to our own weakness:
“We have to glory”, St Alphonsus says, “in the knowledge of our own weakness
in order to acquire the strength of Jesus Christ, which is holy humility”, without
“giving in to lack of confidence, as the devil wants, and falling into more serious
sins” (”Treasury of Preaching Material”, II, 6).

At the same time this passage teaches us that awareness of our personal short-
comings should lead us to put all our trust in God: “We have to cry out cease-
lessly with a strong and humble faith, ‘Lord, put not your trust in me. But I, I put
my trust in you. ‘ Then, as we sense in our hearts the love, the compassion, the
tenderness of Christ’s gaze upon us (for he never abandons us) we shall come
to understand the full meaning of those words of St Paul, “virtus in infirmitate per-
ficitur” (2 Cor 12:9). If we have faith in our Lord, in spite of our failings — or rather,
with our failings—we shall be faithful to our Father, God; his divine power will
shine forth in us, sustaining us in our weakness” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of
God”, 194).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Mark 6:1-6

No Prophet Is Honored In His Own Country

[1] He (Jesus) went away from there and came to His own country; and His dis-
ciples followed Him. [2] And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue;
and many who heard Him were astonished saying, “Where did this man get all
this? What is the wisdom given to Him? What mighty works are wrought by His
hands! [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and
Joses and Judah and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us?” And they
took offense at Him. [4] And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without ho-
nor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”
[5] And He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands upon
a few sick people and healed them. [6] And He marvelled because of their un-
belief.

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Commentary:

1-3. Jesus is here described by His occupation and by the fact that He is the
son of Mary. Does this indicate that St. Joseph is dead already? We do not
know, but it is likely. In any event, the description is worth underlining: in the
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke we are told of the virginal conception of
Jesus. St. Mark’s Gospel does not deal with our Lord’s infancy, but there may
be an allusion here to His virginal conception and birth, in His being described
as “the son of Mary.”

“Joseph, caring for the Child as he had been commanded, made Jesus a crafts-
man, transmitting his own professional skill to him. So the neighbors of Naza-
reth will call Jesus both “faber” and “fabri filius”: the craftsman and the son of
the craftsman” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 55). This message of
the Gospel reminds us that our vocation to work is not marginal to God’s plans.

“The truth that by means of work man participates in the activity of God Himself,
his Creator, was ‘given particular prominence by Jesus Christ’ — the Jesus at
whom many of His first listeners in Nazareth ‘were astonished, saying, “Where
did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to Him?... Is not this the car-
penter?’” (Mark 6:23). For Jesus not only proclaimed but first and foremost ful-
filled by His deeds the ‘Gospel’, the word of eternal Wisdom, that had been en-
trusted to Him. Therefore this was also ‘the gospel of work’, because ‘He who pro-
claimed it was Himself a man of work’, a craftsman like Joseph of Nazareth (cf.
Matthew 13:55). And if we do not find in His words a special command to work —
but rather on one occasion a prohibition against too much anxiety about work
and life—(Matthew 6:25-34)—at the same time the eloquence of the life of Christ
is unequivocal: He belongs to the ‘working world’, He has appreciation and res-
pect for human work. It can indeed be said the ‘He looks with love upon human
work’ and the different forms that it takes, seeing in each one of these forms a
particular facet of man’s likeness with God, the Creator and Father” (Bl. John
Paul II, “Laborem Exercens”, 26).

St. Mark mentions by name a number of brothers of Jesus, and refers in general
to His sisters. But the word “brother” does not necessarily mean son of the same
parents. It can also indicate other degrees of relationship—cousins, nephews, etc.
Thus in Genesis 13:8 and 14:14 and 16 Lot is called the brother of Abraham (tran-
slated as “kinsman” in RSV), whereas we know that he was Abraham’s nephew,
the son of Abraham’s brother Haran. The same is true of Laban, who is called the
brother of Jacob (Genesis 29:15) although he was his mother’s brother (Genesis
29:15); there are other instances: cf. 1 Chronicles 23:21-22, etc. This confusion
is due to the poverty of Hebrew and Aramaic language: in the absence of distinct
terms, the same word, brother, is used to designate different degrees of relation-
ship.

From other Gospel passages we know that James and Joses, who are men-
tioned here, were sons of Mary of Clophas (John 19:25). We know less about Ju-
das and Simon: it seems that they are the Apostles Simon the Cananaean (Mat-
thew 10:4) and Judas the son of James (Luke 6:16), the author of the Catholic
Epistle, in which he describes himself as “brother” of James. In any event, al-
though James, Simon and Judas are referred to as brothers of Jesus, it is no-
where said they were “sons of Mary” — which would have been the natural thing
if they had been our Lord’s brothers in the strict sense. Jesus always appears as
an only son: to the people of Nazareth, He is “the son of Mary” (Matthew 13:55).
When He was dying Jesus entrusted His mother to St. John (cf. John 19:26-27),
which shows that Mary had no other children. To this is added the constant be-
lief of the Church, which regards Mary as the ever-virgin: “a perfect virgin before,
while, and forever after she gave birth” (Paul IV, “Cum Quorumdam”).

5-6. Jesus worked no miracles here: not because He was unable to do so, but as
punishment for the unbelief of the townspeople. God wants man to use the grace
offered him, so that, by cooperating with grace, he become disposed to receive
further graces. As St. Augustine neatly puts it, “He who made you without your
own self, will not justify you without yourself” (”Sermon” 169).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.