FranciscanMedia.org | Sunday Soundbites | 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday Soundbites

Sunday Soundbites is a weekly, 90-second radio homily based on the Sunday readings, written and read by Fr. Greg Friedman, O.F.M. Sunday Soundbites is also heard on Catholic radio stations around the country.

Program for Sunday, July 08, 2012
(14th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Transcript

Ez 2:2-5
Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
2 Cor 12:7-10
Mk 6:1-6

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Today's second reading is perhaps some of the most personal testimony in all of the Christian Scriptures. St. Paul tells us how he had a "thorn in the flesh," something—and we don’t know exactly what this was—which reminded Paul constantly of his need for God. Was it a physical ailment, an emotional difficulty, some sin or failing? Whatever it was, Paul didn’t like it! He prayed that it might leave him.

God's answer to that prayer? Simply that God’s grace would be enough to see Paul through. Paul learned from this personal experience how to accept this weakness, how to allow it to be a moment where the power of God would instead take over.

I don't know about you, but I find this reading very comforting. I am no saint, that’s for sure. But if a real saint, like Paul, can "boast of his weakness," and can openly admit to it, and to how he begged God to take it away, then I find in Paul's story a way to deal with my own sinfulness, my own weakness.

I like the way Paul's experience gave him a way to look at all the things that happened to him—"weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints," he says. So maybe there's hope for the rest of us, as well, to discover a similar insight, with God's help.

I’m Father Greg Friedman with the "Sunday Soundbite" for St. Anthony Messenger Press, on the Web at FranciscanRadio.org.

Meet Father Greg Friedman

Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M., is creative director with the Media Production Team at Franciscan Media. He also hosts American Catholic Radio each week, and produces videos for www.AmericanCatholic.org, including the "Two-Minute Take." Father Greg wrote and directed Assisi Pilgrimage: Walking in Faith with Francis and Clare, which appeared on ABC-TV stations nationwide. He also produced the popular faith-formation series Catholic Update Video, used in parishes around the U.S. He currently serves as pastor of St. Francis Seraph Parish, located in the inner-city neighborhood of "Over-the-Rhine" in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can contact him at letters@franciscanradio.org.

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