(Vatican Radio) The Lord asks us to be patient, after all He is always patient with
us. Moreover there is no "set protocol" for how God intervenes in our lives; sometimes
it's immediate, sometimes we just have to have a little patience. This was the lesson
drawn by Pope Francis from the daily readings at Mass Friday morning in Casa Santa
Marta. Emer McCarthy reports:
The Lord slowly
enters the life of Abraham, who is 99 years old when He promises him a son. Instead
He immediately enters the life of the leper, Jesus listens to his prayer, touches
him and preforms a miracle. Pope Francis went on to speak of how the Lord chooses
to become involved "in our lives, in the lives of His people." The lives of Abraham
and the leper. "When the Lord intervenes - said the Pope– He does not always do so
in the same way. There is no ‘set protocol’ of action of God in our life", "it does
not exist ". Once, he added, "He intervenes is one way, another time in a different
way” but He always intervenes. There is "always - he said - this meeting between
us and the Lord".
"The Lord always chooses His way to enter into our lives.
Often He does so slowly, so much so, we are in danger of losing our 'patience', a
little. But Lord, when? 'And we pray, we pray ... And He doesn’t intervene in our
lives. Other times, when we think of what the Lord has promised us, that it such a
huge thing, we don’t believe it, we are a little skeptical, like Abraham – and we
smile a little to ourselves ... This is what it says in the First Reading, Abraham
hid his face and smiled ... A bit 'of skepticism:' What? Me? I am almost a hundred
years old, I will have a son and my wife at 90 will have a son? '.
Sarah
is equally skeptical, the Pope recalled, at the Oaks of Mamre, when the three angels
say the same thing to Abraham. "How often, when the Lord does not intervene, does
not perform a miracle, does not do what we want Him to do, do we become impatient
or skeptical?"
"But He does not, He cannot for skeptics. The Lord takes
his time. But even He, in this relationship with us, has a lot of patience. Not only
do we have to have patience: He has! He waits for us! And He waits for us until the
end of life! Think of the good thief, right at the end, at the very end, he acknowledged
God. The Lord walks with us, but often does not reveal Himself, as in the case of
the disciples of Emmaus. The Lord is involved in our lives - that's for sure! - But
often we do not see. This demands our patience. But the Lord who walks with us, He
also has a lot of patience with us. "
The Pope turned his thoughts to "the
mystery of God's patience, who in walking, walks at our pace." Sometimes in life,
he noted, "things become so dark, there is so much darkness, that we want - if we
are in trouble - to come down from the cross." This, he said, "is the precise moment:
the night is at its darkest, when dawn is about to break. And when we come down from
the Cross, we always do so just five minutes before our liberation comes, at the very
moment when our impatience is greatest ".
"Jesus on the Cross, heard them
challenging him: 'Come down, come down! Come '. Patience until the end, because He
has patience with us. He always enters, He is involved with us, but He does so in
His own way and when He thinks it's best. He tells us exactly what He told Abraham:
Walk in my presence and be blameless', be above reproach, this is exactly the right
word. Walk in my presence and try to be above reproach. This is the journey with the
Lord and He intervenes, but we have to wait, wait for the moment, walking always in
His presence and trying to be beyond reproach. We ask this grace from the Lord, to
always walk in His presence, trying to be blameless'.