Musings from Bishop-elect McDermott

My dear family in Christ:

There has been a lot of ink spilled over the question of “what was St. Paul’s thorn in the flesh?”  We heard the apostle reference this thorn in his 2^nd Letter to the Corinthians for the 14^th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  What was this thorn, this “angel of Satan,” which tormented St. Paul so much.  I don’t know, and apart from St. Paul and the Lord Himself, no one else probably knows either.  Some have speculated that it was a habitual sin that the saint struggled with, others a personality trait which caused him distress.  Whatever it was the most significant part of the thorn was that it led him to rely upon the grace of God even more, so that he could boast of his weaknesses so that Christ’s power could work through him.  This is a lesson for us all.

Sometimes we find ourselves struggling with the same old sin, or the same old habit, or the same old behavior which drags us down.  We confess it, we want to leave it in the past, but we can’t seem to shake it.  I sometimes wonder if, like St. Paul, the Lord does not take away our thorns in the flesh so that we have no reason to boast.  These thorns remind us of our absolute need to rely upon God’s grace and mercy in our lives.  If they were taken away from us miraculously, how many of us would be tempted to think that we had no more need to seek God’s forgiveness or mercy?  Would we somehow think that we had no further spiritual growth to pursue? That we had made it to the top of the mountain of faith?

So, I believe, and this is my own personal opinion and insight, not an official teaching of the church, that we will make small and slow progress in these thorny areas of our lives so long as we remember to keep returning to Him who is the source of all good things; but the final overcoming will only come when we meet Him face to face.

This doesn’t mean we just give up and give in, it means, like St. Paul, we keep returning to Christ seeking mercy and strength, so like St. Paul we may all say with confidence, ” I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and constraints, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Keep the faith, keep praying, God alone suffices,

The Most Reverend John J. McDermott

Bishop-elect.