INVINCIBILITY and INDEFATIGABILITY
are not words found in most people's daily vocabulary. Even when these "I
words" are transposed into "U form" — unconquerable and untiring — most of
us would have to admit that these "little virtues" do not figure very highly
in our roster of ordinary living. And, if we look deeper, we might even
concede that in the realm of reality we are neither invincible nor
indefatigable!
These "I words" teach us something very important about Christian virtue,
though, something that St. Paul summed up quite accurately when he declared,
I live, YET, NOT I, CHRIST is
living in me. Ultimately, the exercise of virtue is not
so much about what we do, but what we allow our Lord to do with, in and
through us. St. Thérèse expressed this well when she said:
When I am charitable, it is JESUS who is charitable
in me. So too in the practice of INVINCIBILITY
and INDEFATIGABILITY. If we are invincible and
indefatigable, it is because Christ, invincible and indefatigable, is living
and working in us.
The
Gospels show us numerous examples of our Lord's INVINCIBILITY
and INDEFATIGABILITY. He was never defeated by the derision
of His foes, the dullness of His disciples, the indifference of the crowds.
Even in His Passion, Jesus was unconquerable — fully surrendered, totally
faithful, boundlessly good, loving and merciful. Sorrow, weariness,
disappointment did not diminish His untiring, ever-giving love. Withdrawing
to grieve the death of John the Baptist, our Lord's indefatigable compassion
was moved at the sight of the crowd. Sitting exhausted by Jacob's well, His
untiring love did not hesitate to reach out to the Samaritan woman.
St. Francis of Assisi would be the first to acknowledge that he was neither
INVINCIBLE nor INDEFATIGABLE. Until the end of his
life, he suffered his human frailties and limitations. But it was exactly on
this "plain of weakness" that Francis found Christ marking out acres of
INVINCIBILITY and INDEFATIGABILITY. Francis, the
fiery little Italian, upset at the compromises and mitigations some of his
friars sought, could cry out in anguish,
Let them do what they want! Let us go and live in a
cave! Yet Francis, the Little Poor Man, armed with
Christ's INVINCIBLE patience, would go out to meet these
erring brothers again and again. Francis, weighed down with pain and
infirmity, could easily have withdrawn into the narrow rut of self-pity.
Instead, he opened his heart to allow Jesus' INDEFATIGABLE
love to send him forth to preach the Gospel until his very last breath.
Is this INVINCIBILITY and INDEFATIGABILITY
impossible for us to achieve? Not at all! It requires large doses of faith
in God and a willingness to believe that when we are weak, then we are
strong. It asks us to practice a far-reaching self-denial, to constantly
lower the capital "I" of egoism and to immerse it in Christ whose grace is
all-sufficient, whose power is made perfect precisely in our weakness.
To achieve any measure of INVINCIBILITY and
INDEFATIGABILITY, we also need to remember that Jesus'
INVINCIBILITY and INDEFATIGABILITY reached their
apex on the Cross. Our Lord was most invincible precisely when He appeared
to be suffering the greatest defeat. He reached the summit of
indefatigability precisely when He pushed past all physical and spiritual
fatigue to complete His saving work. INVINCIBLE and
INDEFATIGABLE, Jesus invites us to discover the joy of these I, yet
not I virtues, which enable us to declare with all the saints: I can do all
things IN HIM who strengthens me!
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