Homily for 23 Sep 2016

23 Sep 2016

“God has made everything appropriate to its time.”  Even such things as Jesus being revealed as the Christ, or the coming of his passion and death didn’t happen until it was time.  And this is an insight into the ways of God that we have to remember. 

Why is there so much struggle and strife in the world today?  It’s time for it; maybe there are a lot of things in society that need to be straightened out—and it’s time they get straightened out.  But, of course, it won’t last; because peace also has its time.  And a time of peace is coming.  When?  When it’s time.

In the parish we worry a lot about the future: What’s going to happen with our buildings?  What’s going to happen with the shrinking numbers of priests?  What’s going to happen . . . and when are we going to know?  When it’s time to know.  Right now we’re still in a fog but, you know, when the sun rises, it gets rid of all that fog.  When is our spiritual fog going to lift?  When the Light of God rises in our hearts.  When is that going to be?  When it’s time.  But, rest assured, the fog will lift.  That time will come.

And so, it’s both frustrating and reassuring to know that things happen . . . when they’re supposed to happen.  Of course, we want difficult times to be done with, and for good times to hurry up and get here.  That’s the frustrating part.  The reassuring part, though, is in knowing that the good times will come.  And it’s even reassuring to know that we wouldn’t be in difficult times if it wasn’t meant to be.

Maybe when life is dark, there’s some wisdom we need to learn.  Maybe it’s time of testing; a time for making our faith and hope stronger.  Maybe.  And when life is good, maybe we need to learn to be more grateful or more carefree.  Maybe.  Regardless, “God has made everything appropriate to its time.”  The challenge is to let God do what he does, when he does it, and to just go with the flow—not with fear, but with trust that, in the end, God is in control.