Monday of Week 11 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 | Psalm 97(98):1-4 | Matthew 5:38-42
For [God] says: “At the favourable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help.” Well, now is the favourable time; this is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)
“Now” is almost always a busy time.
“This day” is almost always filled with cares and duties.
So we push our Creator to the fringes, mentally promising to come back to Him when we have time to breathe.
And we almost never do.
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I normally write these blog entries as part of my nightly “shutdown” routine. However, I’ve been so wiped out at the end of the last few days that I’ve deferred contemplating and writing about the day’s scripture till the day itself.
On Saturday, I busied myself into leaving it out entirely.
I’m writing this now, in between work engagements, because I belatedly realized something: The last two weeks of my life have been filled with death in one form or another. Wakes involving family and friends covered pretty much the entire period, and I was personally involved in two funerals just last week.
The past is done and gone. The duration of my future is unknown.
All I really have is the “now”, and I know there will be a day of “no more now”, when my mind and body no longer function as they usually do.
If I don’t continually orient myself towards God, not just in heart, but in mind and body and schedule as well, there will be a time when I can no longer do any of that.
Being unable to complete any of my projects on this earth is, in the end, no big deal. If it’s important enough, others will step in to continue my work.
What terrifies me is having to stand before God and answer the question:
Where we you when I called?
Where was I, that I was not ready to stop and listen to the Almighty?
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Robert Heinlein wrote a sci-fi novel titled Time Enough for Love over 40 years ago, about a Methuselah appropriately named Lazarus Long who tired of life after over 2000 years of existence.
None of us are likely to reach that ripe old age, but the book’s title speaks volumes.
No matter how busy we are, we always have time enough for God’s love…if we so choose.
But if we choose not, there will always be “no time”, until the day that trite phrase takes on literal truth.
God always has time for us. When will we have time for Him?
Amen.