Riflessione:		“WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG” Fr. Domenico B. Spoletini, ssp
Video:		27 Aprile 2003: La beatificazione in Piazza S. Pietro Il Santo padre pronuncia solennemente la FORMULA DI BEATIFICAZIONE Dal DVD: A. Monge, "Giacomo fa' luce!" Versione.mov |  Versione. wmv
Testo:		Don Giacomo Alberione, Preghiere, 2007   PATTO O SEGRETO DI RIUSCITA ITA - ESP   PER CHI SENTE SETE DI ANIME COME GESÙ ITA - ESP   SUPPLICA ONNIPOTENTE ITA - ESP   ABUNDANTES DIVITIAE GRATIAE SUAE, n. 112 ITA - ESP - ENG - BRA

“WHEN  I  AM  WEAK,  THEN  I  AM  STRONG”
Fr. Domenico B. Spoletini, ssp
 

“The gospel and Christian life, as well as salvation depend much more on our suffering than on our action...When we are reduced to inaction because of pains or sickness, we can work more extensively and deeply than with action: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2Cor 12,10)”.

We read this in a writing by blessed James Alberione on Vita Pastorale (January-February 1950). Its title is revealing: “Passio catholica” (Catholic passion): there he sketches the likeness of the priest who takes seriously his life and offers himself with Christ for the salvation of the world.   A hundred years from the priestly ordination of Fr. Alberione, we ask ourselves: did he ever imagine that about fifteen years later, those very Pauline lines would have appeared in him in a devastating form (!), accompanying him until the tomb (1971)? We do not know, but one thing is certain: God had prepared Alberione for that moment in which, from a life of frantic activity, all geared to the mission of evangelizing the men of today with the means of today, he would have passed to a life of inaction marked by suffering. A true icon of the Crucified. This was not only part of his spiritual ideal, but a reflection of life. Indeed, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12,10).

By this expression the apostle Paul wants us (like him!) to be on guard against facile vainglory because of accomplished works. Fr. Alberione knew it: through him, the Lord had given to the Church a new and very modern charism; a new and large Family that aspired to be saint Paul living today; a spirituality attuned to the times; and he has seen his work expand itself in a short time to the five continents… There was in him the real risk of “going up in pride”. And the Lord  works with him as with the great “elect” of the Bible: the power of God will reveal itself in the humility of the instrument (cf 1Cor 1,31).

Three particular aspects of weakness and suffering strongly marked his Pauline priesthood.  First of all, his precarious health. (cf AD 47). Alberione was always sickly, but he knew how to accept this as a “sign of Providence” so that his charismatic works would mature better. He countered sickness with an exceptional force of will. God did the rest. 

Secondly  – and these, in his weakness, reveal his unlimited trust in God – there are his big initiatives: the foundations, the numerous communities, the printing and diffusion of the Bible, the new technologies: all of them or almost accomplished during “difficult times” (cf AD 44-45) with ill-prepared persons and insufficient means, with delays in seeing the “novelty” of his charism recognized (cf AD 110). Sometimes it seemed like tempting the Divine Providence! The secret? He reveals it to his missionaries in Australia. “Note well, he said to them, that without sacrifice you accomplish nothing…The Cross must not stay alone at the top of the belfries, but must be planted in your hearts…Everything that is good costs. The crowns of the Blessed are made up of crosses”.

There is a third point, perhaps the most revealing: Fr. Alberione was exceedingly tested interiorly because of infidelities, abandonments, failures of initiatives cherished for a long time (cf AD 112-113). In his last years, to one who visited him, he asked for prayers “because  – he said – I shall have from God a very severe judgment”. He even came to the point of doubting his salvation. 

Alberione answered with total generosity, as revealed by his favorite prayers: the “Pact or secret of success” and “For those who thirst for souls as Jesus”.

We could continue. We are before a secret still entirely to be discovered, because Fr.  Alberione accepted his daily crosses with reserve as part of his priesthood, and every day he offered them in the Mass which he celebrated until the day prior to his death, worthy zeal of a priesthood  loaded with years, charisms, self-giving and  sanctity. We believe that in few persons as in him is revealed the Pauline saying: In the weakness of the instrument the power of God shows itself.