Pope at Mass: The Mystery of God's patience (how often do we become skeptical)

Vatican Radio ^ | June 28, 2013

[NYer]

(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'.

[NYer]

Ping!

[Secret Agent Man]

I am not skeptical of God. No matter what happens.

Most of the bad stuff that happens here is the work of sinful men and women. God allows it for a number of reasons. More than I know of. God knowing it will happen doesn’t mean he’s endorsing it or happy it will occur. He knew the Cross would happen but if there would have been any other less awful way to satisfy His perfect law He’d have done it.

I am cynical, I am sarcastic, but not at God. At the bad works of my fellow man, I am. As in, If there’s one thing the liberals can always do, is show you that you can never lower the bar too low for them to crawl under.

[Secret Agent Man]

And personally, I think being cynical and sarcastic are good, towards those doing the bad things, in the sense that you still care about the issue at hand.

Indifference means you’ve disconnected and given up. You genuinely don’t care about them or what they do. Cynicism and sarcasm shows you’re still connected to what’s going on and at least are trying to point out stuff like hypocrisy, bad logic, stupid ideas, wickedness, and even trying to make the point with some cleverness and humor.

[pax_et_bonum]

“If there’s one thing the liberals can always do, is show you that you can never lower the bar too low for them to crawl under.”
_________

A very memorable quote.

[oh8eleven]

Most of the bad stuff that happens here is the work of sinful men and women. God allows it for a number of reasons.
Give me one good reason God allowed Hitler's rise to power resulting in 50 million deaths during WWII.

[Secret Agent Man]

i believe whatever reason i’d give you, you’d find a problem with it.

do you think wwii is somehow worse than other horrific things that have happened in the past? stalin’s purges? wwi? tyrants across the ages? disasters, man-made and natural?

do you know all of God’s plans? i don’t. I still believe that He is on our side,He is for us, He still is able to bring good out of bad, and that we may not always get the answers to our prayers that we ask for.

i ask where do we draw the line when we don’t get what we want, that we say there can’t be a God. we ask for lots of things every day we don’t get. should we say ‘screw God’ because we don’t win the lottery and we could really use the money? should we forget God because the arthritis doesn’t go away, or i get a toothache that doesn’t heal itself? should we forget God because people in our family live long lives, but get older and still eventually wind up dying? should we forget God because He should somehow stop believers from physically dying because NOW we’re believers?

[Talisker]

Give me one good reason God allowed Hitler's rise to power resulting in 50 million deaths during WWII.

If you allow reincarnation, you've got 50 million reasons.

[oh8eleven]

If you allow reincarnation, you've got 50 million reasons.
So God just uses humans as toys? I don't think so.

[oh8eleven]

i believe whatever reason i’d give you, you’d find a problem with it.
Translated - I can't give you one good reason.

[Secret Agent Man]

why don’t you tell me one reason i could give you that you’d accept.

[dsc]

Unanswered prayers can be great blessings.