Patience

Last Night's Homily:
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When we read the Gospel today, from Saint Luke, we see this first strong rejection of Jesus. Last week Jesus read from the Prophet Isaiah and told his own people that he was the fulfillment of that prophecy. This week we see the response: total and complete rejection. They did speak highly of Jesus at first, but as they began to realize what He was saying, they simply could not accept His words.

This happens to lots of people even in our own time. We grow up as believers, but then as we get older, and life and it‘s ugly details take over, we forget a lot of it. In our own way we often reject those beliefs, but God in His goodness finds a way to bring us back. it’s a good thing that God has more patience then we do. St. Paul in our second reading today reminds us about the many qualities of God that we so often forget. We know that God is love, and among the many things that Paul says of love, he says how it is patient.

Patience is the key to understanding so many things in life. Jesus speaks of how a prophet is never welcome in his own land. He speaks of how Elijiah and Elisia, the great prophets of the Old Testament, seemingly failed in their ministry to others because they did not respond to such great needs. It was only to certain people that the love of the Lord seemed to fall. I think that is something that we can all relate to.

We have all had those moments where we ask ourselves, ‘where is God?’. The prayers that go unanswered, the tragedies that occur in the world that make us wonder where God was when that disaster struck. When terrorists attacked our nation, and took the lives of nearly 3,000 people on 9/11, where was God. When the earthquake struck Haiti a few weeks ago, and claimed the lives of 150,000 people, and left the country in total desolation, where was God. When the twenty something year old dies unexpectedly, when our partner cheats, when our friends and family get sick, or when all the many calamities of life occur, where is God. For a God who is all love, there is an awful lot of less then loving situations that we are forced to endure.

On the topic of love Jesus said many things, but His life and Passion the Cross expressed 3 important things. He demonstrates an example of love, and invitation to love, and a revelation about love. The example of love is His passion, as He says “greater love has no man then this, to lay down his life for his friends.” Which is exactly what He did. Second He invites us to love as He did, with His words, “love one another as I have loved you.” He loved us by suffering and dying on the Cross, so logically we can determine, that the revelation about Love that He brings is that Love involves suffering.

No relationship is easy. Any one of us here I this room can attest to that. Relationships take work, involve pain, and take time to flourish. Our relationship with God is no different. He is patient, and kind, never jealous. As St. Paul said in our Second Reading, It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Just like God is patient with us, as he waits for us to return to Him when we look away, so we must be patient with Him. Any loving relationship requires that both parties maintain those qualities that Paul describes for us tonight. So just as we expect God to never turn away from us, and to always be there, and to be patient and kind, and forgiving…we have to do the same. We have to be patient with God, and know that He will bring all things to where He wants them to be.

Jesus essentially is warning us in today’s Gospel that life is not a bed of roses, and there will be those times where we can’t see the love of the Lord in our lives, or in the world around us. The people in the story we heard tonight don’t like that very much, and drive Him out of town, and even consider trying to kill Him. Let’s not make the same mistake, because it is exactly in those moments where we think God isn’t there, He is usually right there, we just cant see Him, because we become impatient, and fail to let God be God, and let His love be revealed in His time.