Homily for Friday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
As I was preparing for Mass this morning, I was really struck by this line from our first reading: “You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.”
Doing the will of God is not easy. In fact, throughout Scripture, we have countless examples of when people have failed to live up to God’s will and the consequences that it has brought about. Even Jesus Himself showed us that it wasn’t easy, through His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. But in that, He also gave us the example.
Life is full of ups and downs. There will be moments when we struggle to understand how God is moving and acting in our lives, especially when those moments are accompanied by great fear or uncertainty or doubt or sorrow. The temptation during those times is to run away from God, to believe that He has abandoned us. But, in fact, the opposite is true. It’s in our moments of sorrow, it’s in our moments of trial, our moments of suffering that God is closest to us.
Whatever struggle we might be facing today, don’t give up. Keep pushing forward. Persevere. Endure. The Lord is with us in those struggles. He is carrying us. We have to continue speaking to Him about what we’re experiencing and continue asking Him for the grace to get through it. As we’re reminded this morning: “We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.”
Fr. Tom Pringle 