To live as a Christian is as good as saying that we are prepared to face the contradictions of life.
Because the teachings of Jesus are full of contradictions - the cross itself is a contradiction.
What Jesus taught, like for e.g. what we heard in the gospel, about offering the wicked man no resistance and unconditional generosity even to the ungrateful sounds crazy.
But in the 1st reading, we hear St. Paul attesting that the teachings of Jesus and a life of contradictions are not at all crazy; in fact it points to the holy.
In his sufferings, hardships and distress, he affirmed that God's grace was working powerfully in him.
Indeed, God's grace is poured into our hearts when we ourselves are undergoing sufferings, hardships and distress.
Because in the time of our need, God will listen to us and come to our help and save us.
There is a poem about contradictions in life and it goes like this :
I asked for health that I might do greater things;
but I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
but I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
but I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God.
I got nothing I asked for, but by God's grace I got everything I hoped for.