Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 17, 2017 - Tuesday in the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 6:10-20 and Mark 2:23-28]God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones. We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises. [Hebrews]
JANUARY 17 ST. ANTHONY, abbot
I have always found this passage from the Letter to the Hebrews (today's first scripture) very comforting. When the "long haul" begins to look shorter - something that living around a university community, as I do, can magnify - I get a bit more philosophical about what remains in the "long haul." Around me are university students who are working to build a foundation for their dreams. There are professors who are in the blossom of career. I am frequently asked, "Are you retired?" I answer, "No, just slower than I used to be." Itinerant preaching demands a flexibility and patience with oneself that seems to become more challenging with each advancing year. I will be 74 next month and am reminded daily of this fact by my body. The "faith and patience" mentioned by Hebrews are no abstract piety but a necessity. However, the "eagerness" has to be pushed at times.
The students are a continual reminder to me that growing older gracefully is a powerful witness to them. Faith is a "long haul" thing, not just something one does out of habit or "because of the children." Our efforts to live that faith and share it with others never go unnoticed by God even if often unrewarded by humans. God is indeed "just," and we will inherit the "promises" if we stay faithful for the long haul. AMEN
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