19th Sunday of Year C–Installation of Fr. Anthony Strouse as Pastor of St. Pius X, Flint
by Most Rev. Earl Boyea, Bishop of Lansing
What if you pulled into a McDonalds or Wendys drive through and ordered your burgers and fries and were told, “OK, if you will pull over there, we promise you we will get your food to you at some point”? What if you turned on your computer to play a game or to retrieve your e-mail and a message came up saying, “Go out for a walk; your computer will be ready eventually”? What if it was approaching December 25th and you were told by your teacher or your employer, “I promise you a vacation for the holidays but you will have to wait to find out when it will be”? Most of us, in any of these circumstances, would easily lose our patience. I know that when my phone takes longer to process something than I think it should, I get very impatient and start waving my hands, “come on, come on”! We do not know how to wait; we are not very good at delayed gratification. Yet everything that is really good in our lives is something that we must wait for, we must prepare for. This is especially true of God’s promises to us.
Abraham, our Father in faith, is the one who best shows us how we are to wait for God’s promises. His story is related in our second reading today from the Letter to the Hebrews. Abraham was told by God to leave his own country, where he had grown up, where his family lived, and go to a strange country which God said he would give him. Abraham had to wait a long time for that country to be his—in fact, it did not happen until his descendants, the Israelites, took the land hundreds of years after his death. We are told in the Letter to the Hebrews today that in the meantime, Abraham lived “in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise” as they waited for God to fulfill that promise.
Abraham was also promised many descendants and yet for most of his life he did not even have a son. It was only late in life that he and his wife had a son, whom they named Isaac. Yet through all this time Abraham trusted that God would be faithful to his promises—that is what we call faith.
Jesus promises us in the Gospel today that if we keep our eyes open and keep watching for his return in glory, then he, Jesus, will save us when he comes back. Well, we have been waiting for 2000 years for Christ’s return. But have we waited as Abraham waited? My guess is that most of us need a quick answer from God. We really are unable to keep going for the long haul on just a promise.
Two things are needed by us if we are to live a life of a Christian in our world today. First of all, we need patience—we need to be able to wait for what is truly good without needing an answer right now. Secondly, we need faith. Only faith that God will be true to his promises will allow us to be patient and wait.
Patience means that when we are on the football team, we work hard day in and day out knowing that in the end all the work will pay off—maybe it will pay off in victories on the field, or maybe it will pay off later in our life. Maybe we won’t win that many games, but maybe the friendships we developed, our discipline and stick-to-it-ness will help us be better adults and more responsible parents. We may not even realize the pay off until we look back on our lives.
Patience means that when our marriage seems to be falling apart, we make a new investment in it, taking the time to try to renew our relationship, realizing how much work went into it the first time, but believing and hoping that something positive and good can result.
Very few of us, unfortunately, are willing to make this long-term effort. We want to see results now. Patience means that we raise our children and given them our time and attention, knowing full well, that we ourselves may not be the beneficiaries of all that effort.
During my time of doing seminary work, I put a lot of time and energy into preparing young men for the priesthood—yet I didn’t expect them to bring about some great reform in the Church. Rather, I hoped that they would train the next generation of priests who would begin to bring about that reform. I am willing to play my little part in that long-range process. Parents do the same thing with their kinds—for they are preparing parents for the next generation.
Why would any of us be patient? We would any of us be willing to put off our satisfaction until sometime later? It is only because we believe that in the end God will balance all this out—that we shall be rewarded in the end—and that reward, life with God, is worth waiting for, worth all our efforts. Of course, we hold to this only due to the gift of faith.
My sisters and brothers, I promise you heaven—I promise you a life you cannot imagine—I promise you a love deeper and richer than anything you could dream about—but this will remain a promise until it is fulfilled—in the meantime, keep the faith, be patient, and keep your eyes on the look-out for Jesus.
God bless you all.