There is an idiomatic expression of human wisdom in the English language that cautions us that:  “You have to take the bad with the good.”  Even though our modern, overly optimistic view of the human condition might declare that, “It is all good,” we know that rarely is that declaration true.  We would like it to be true but seldom is life that simplistic.  Our human condition is a wondrous, and sometimes frustrating, admixture of good and bad.  We have a great desire for the good in life but in our quest to lay hold of the good we often find that we are defeated by a weakness in our life that produces something that is bad.  St. Paul attests to this miserable part of our human condition in his letter to the Romans:  “For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is in my flesh.  The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.  For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.  For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Miserable one that I am!  Who will deliver me from this mortal body?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 7,18-25)  When I become acquainted with my weakness, it is then that I must rely upon the strength of God’s grace for perfection.

    When a man approaches Jesus, addressing him as “good teacher” and asking him about inheriting eternal life, Jesus cautions him, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone.” (Mk 10,17f)  Any good that we desire in life cannot be attained by our own merits.  We must have help.  Left to our own selfish nature we would certainly be found wanting in our search for the good.  Jesus tells a parable of a man who sows good seed in his field but awakens to find that an enemy has come in the night and has sown weeds in his wheat.  “The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?  Where have the weeds come from?” (Mt 13,27)  Where do those pesky weeds come from?  How is it that I discover weakness in my life when I am most in need of strength?  We need God.  We need his grace.  Our merciful God will not leave us alone in the moment of our need but will come to help us.  The psalmist declares, “Our help is the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”  After the resurrection of Jesus, when the disciples have returned to their fishing boats and again face the sorry truth of the emptiness of their nets, they see someone on the shore who helps them to find a great catch.  The disciple whom Jesus loved is able to name the source of their great success, “So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” (Jn 21,7)  The Lord is our help, our strength and the source of all grace.

    Our weaknesses help us to see that the good that we desire in our inner nature does not come from ourselves alone but it is the fruit of God’s grace at work within us.  We have to come to terms with our own weakness, our own sinfulness, our failures and surrender ourselves to the one who is the source of all good.  We do not want to be “hard of face and obstinate of heart” (Ez 2,3) like the Israelites in the time of the prophet Ezekiel.  We do not want to amaze Jesus by our “lack of faith,” (Mk 6,6) as did the people of his native place.  We want to place our trust in power of Jesus to free us from our sin, to show us the way to the good and to be the Bread of Life that gives us strength for our journey of life.  Jesus does not promise to take away all of our weaknesses, but he promises to provide the remedy for our sins, the strength to master sin, the mercy to be forgiven when we fall, and his abiding presence to be rest for our weary souls.

    St. Paul finally understood that he would have to take the bad with the good in life, and trust that God’s grace and mercy were stronger than his weakness and would supply him in his need.  “Three times I begged the Lord about this (his ‘thorn in the flesh’), that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me…for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2Cor 12,8ff)  Life is not “all good” but the Lord is.  He is happy to lend us his power to counter our weakness and to give us hope for eternal life.