Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4
2 Tm 1:6-8, 13-14
Lk 17:5-10

Why does everything take so long? Problems abound, in the world, in my life, everywhere, and solutions seem to be non-existent. After all, they can solve a murder on TV in one hour, less commercials, so why can't all of my problems, all of society's problems, be worked out just as easily? We put a man on the moon, why can't we solve our problems here on earth? Well, putting that man on the moon took a bit more than one hour, less commercials. It took years of planning, it did not happen overnight. We live now in a time that seems to have lost a sense of patience. Instant solutions on TV, 24 hour news cycles, everything has to happen and happen now. We cry out and there seems to be no answer, and we refuse to think that anything may take time. We call to heaven, but seem to get no reply. Maybe, we think, our faith isn't strong enough. Maybe we just need more, as if faith were a commodity, quantifiable, measureable. Jesus tells his followers in answer to their cry to increase their faith, that faith the size of a mustard seed is enough. More faith won't make things happen, more faith won't make everything better. What we must have is faith that what needs to happen will happen. As the Lord says to Habakkuk, "For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late." We have to keep faith and do the one thing we seem to find the most difficult, be patient. Trust me, I am no one to lecture anyone else about being patient. Patience is surely a virtue, and for me a life-long struggle. I try, I fail, but I try again. I must, as we all must, try to understand that the vision has its time, and that time is God's, not ours. We must all learn to wait, to have patience, and realize that all things are in God's hands. Easy to say, hard to do, but we must try. For if we can wait, if we can be patient, we will understand that, the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.
Deacon John
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct. 3, 2010