Monday of the Second Week of Advent

Lectionary: 181

Strengthen the hands that are feeble,
        make firm the knees that are weak,
    Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
        Be strong, fear not!
    Here is your God,
        he comes with vindication;
    With divine recompense
        he comes to save you.

Often during challenging times of sickness and death, Christians encourage one another to, "Be strong!" They whisper to the grieving widow or mother the words of Saint Paul, "God will not let you be tried beyond your strength." 

We do well to return to the Bible and find the exact quote in I Corinthians 10:13:

No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.

The authorized translation for American Roman Catholics provides several links to other verses in the Bible: 

...and do not subject us to the final test, (i.e. "...and lead us not into temptation") 

but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13

No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. (James 1:13)

and

God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (James 1: 9) 

If we fall down, if our knees buckle beneath us, if we melt into tears, weep for hours on end, or fall into a sadness leading into depression: these are not proofs of our lack of faith. Saint Mark described the abject terror the Lord Jesus felt as the mob gathered in Jerusalem: 

He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him; he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”

Saint Paul might have said to Jesus as he lie helplessly in the dirt of Gethsemane, "No trial has come to you but what is human."

A few minutes later, the same Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples, 

The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners. Get up, let us go. See, my betrayer is at hand.”

The fear and helplessness had passed. He was ready. 

But they returned, as Saint Mark recalls the Lord's dying words 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

I find little comfort in the scholar's insistence that Jesus was merely quoting the prayer of Psalm 22. 

But I find hope in his resurrection. The Father heard the cry of despair, reached into the darkness of the grave, and scooped up the Body of Jesus to...

...bestow on him the name

that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

There is no sin in despairing of our own strength. It wasn't much to start with. Our strength is God's, and it comes when the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit of life, joy, and divine strength. In weakness we wait on God's time. He will come; he will not delay. In his time. That is what we mean by faith.