The mystery of God's patience

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 this morning in Casa Santa Marta.

The Lord slowly enters the life of Abraham, who is 99 years old when He promises him a son, but He immediately enters the life of the leper. Jesus listens to his prayer, touches him and preforms a miracle. Pope Francis spoke about how the Lord chooses to become involved in our lives, in the lives of His people – in 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 for God in our life. At a given moment, He intervenes is one way, another time in a different way but He always intervenes. There is always 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. At 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 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 is not skeptical, He cannot be a skeptic. 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 patient: He has patience! He waits for us! Sometimes He waits for us even up to the end of our earthly lives! 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 then 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. He had patience until the end, and 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.