For example, St. Faustina, the little polish nun from the beginning of the 20th century had visions of the Lord Himself, who tasked her with making known the message of His Divine Mercy.
The holy children of Fatima, St. Bernadette and St. Juan Diego were visited by Our Lady.
St. Theresa of Avila, as well as St. Francis of Assisi, Alphonsus Ligouri, and St. Padre Pio are said to have sometimes levitated, they began to hover above the earth, as they became enraptured in mystical prayer.
St. Catherine of Siena’s life was filled with mystical phenomena: such as ecstatic raptures, and her mystical marriage to the Lord Himself.
The mystics experienced both mystical ecstasies as well as mystical sufferings: St. Francis, Padre Pio, St. Catherine, suffered the mystical stigmata, the wounds from Our Lord’s passion and crucifixion appeared in their flesh. St. John Vianney would be harassed and physically assaulted by the devil, often when a long-time sinner would be making a good confession to Fr. Vianney.
The New Testament describes several mystical experiences of the Apostle Paul: we know well that Paul had a life-changing mystical encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. He saw the Lord, spoke with Him, and gave his life over to Him. In II Corinthians, Paul writes about being mystically brought up to the third heaven, whatever that means.
And, in the second reading today, Paul writes about an “abundance of revelations” he received from the Lord. But then, Paul writes of this very strange phenomenon, “a thorn in the flesh was given to me,” he writes, “an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.”Perhaps this “thorn in the flesh” referred to the stigmata, a wound from the Lord’s Crown of Thorns? But, we honestly don’t know exactly what Paul means. Some wonder if it was embarrassing skin affliction. Or it may have referred to a reoccurring sensual temptation, an unwanted attraction to something he knew was bad for his soul that he had to remain vigilant against. Or maybe he was speaking figuratively—referring to a particularly difficult challenge in his ministry, a certain group of people that simply would not convert. We don’t know. He’s clearly not talking about some little passing problem.
We do know, that Paul prayed to be delivered of this “thorn in the flesh”. “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me.” In other words, over and over and over Paul begged God to be relieved of this suffering. I think we can all relate to Paul here. Who here hasn’t had some challenge, some hurdle, some temptation, some suffering, that no matter how often we prayed, we couldn’t be rid of it?
I think many people who struggle with addiction relate to Paul here. Many addicts will even use the same language, “my addiction is like an angel of satan, a demon, that I can’t be free of.”
But no doubt, every one of us, has some thorn, something physical or psychological, emotional or spiritual, some problem that won’t go away, even when we pray for deliverance, for help.
So why won’t the Lord deliver us, why won’t he free us from our thorns? Likely, to teach us the same lesson he taught Paul. “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you.” God wants to teach us that his grace is sufficient for us.
What do we mean by grace? The unmerited love of God, the strength and help and power that God gives…is enough. No matter what our suffering consists of—an illness, a loss, a temptation, God’s grace is sufficient for us…to what?…to flourish!…to become the people God made us to be! When the Christian is connected to God’s grace, we become instruments of God’s will, even when we suffer, through what we suffer!
In other words, you can endure anything when you live by God’s grace. In fact, every illness, every loss, every temptation, can become an opportunity to grow in grace. For the Christian, Behind every curse, there is a blessing, behind every suffering, there is joy, in knowing God’s grace sustains us and accomplishes miracles through us.
St. Paul, St. Catherine, St. Padre Pio had these amazing mystical experiences, but they also had their thorns—they had great ecstasies but also great afflictions. And they teach us that the Christian life will always be filled with both: joys and sorrows. We will never be free from thorns during our earthly journey, but we are also never abandoned..
The thorns are proof that God wants something great from all of us: he wants great trust in His grace, he wants not mediocre Christian faith, but great sanctity. He wants us to be the Francis’ and Paul’s and Catherine’s of this age, by deflating our inflated egos and infusing them with grace.
The thorns are reminders, that none of us are finished products: we never reach such a point of sanctity that we become independent of God. In fact, as the saint grows in holiness they recognize their utter dependence on god
In the Gospel today, Jesus Himself is rejected by his neighbors, his townsfolk. What a thorn that must have been, to be rejected by the people you grew up with! So too the Christian, if we are living our faith authentically, it’s likely we’ll face similar rejection. You might be mocked for being a Christian, you might be mocked for going to Church every week, your children and grandchildren might laugh at your faith. But in those times, we need to trust that our task isn’t to be liked by everybody, but to share the Christian Gospel and to live the Christian Gospel faithfully. Being rejected for the Gospel isn’t proof that we are doing something wrong, but doing something right.
Similarly, remaining faithful to the Church’s moral teaching might feel like this painful thorn in the flesh. But we don’t just practice Christianity when it’s easy.
We discover, like Paul, that our weaknesses are made strong by God’s grace, and what we endure for His sake, brings about powerful conversions and transformation in our world and in our souls.
So pray for each other and pray with each other, to remain faithful when we suffer the thorns of this world.
May we all come to really trust that amidst all the thorns and challenges and rejections and illnesses and setbacks and great sufferings of our lives, that Lord’s grace is sufficient. That through them, the Lord works to transform us into saints, into the people he made us to be, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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