Monday of Week 30 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Antony Mary Claret, Bishop
Ephesians 4:32-5:8 | Psalm 1:1-4,6 | Luke 13:10-17
But the Lord answered him. ‘Hypocrites!’ he said ‘Is there one of you who does not untie his ox or his donkey from the manger on the sabbath and take it out for watering? (Luke 13:15)
As humans, we have a strange relationship with time: we want everything now, but lament that there’s not enough time for the things we want.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus berates the synagogue official for placing a time restriction on “healing works”. In modern times, we have the opposite problem: Sunday, or more precisely an hour or so thereof, is for the Lord to be with us, and everything else is for “me, myself and I”.
It is we who want to place limits on our time with God, but we also want God to jump in to help us at any time, anywhere. Right here and right now, Lord.
There’s only one class of people on whom we make such demands: servants.
Perhaps some soul-searching is called for. Are we doing to God the equivalent of “paying minimum wage, yet expecting everything done exactly the way we want it”? Perhaps we forget that:
God doesn’t clock in; He’s always there.
We do the clocking in, reluctantly.
God doesn’t clock out; He’s always there.
We do the clocking out, with unseeming haste.
God is the best friend we could ever meet in our lives.
We treat Him like a personal butler.
God just asks for our fidelity.
We treat Him like an employee with unreasonable demands.
Clearly, we can do better in our relationship with God. We just need to take the first steps today: download and use a mobile app like Daily Reflections (Android) or DGems (iOS) during our coffee breaks, or pray an entire rosary if we’re stuck on the train for a half-hour. Then we can so the same thing tomorrow, and the day after, and so on.
Let’s not wait till the weekend, when we drag ourselves laboriously to church, wondering why we even bother.
Lord, save us from our own apathy. Inspire us to read your Holy Word, and spend time pondering it, and be enlivened by it, and be empowered to live it in love for You and for our fellow humans. Amen.