Sunday in Octave of Christmas 29.12.13 God's time scale
God saves us but too slowly for our taste sometimes. We are impatient for His intervention.
When Our Lord came to the earth the people who believed in Him must have expected a quick improvement in their situation. The Messiah has come - a decisive intervention by God. Now, surely, things will start to improve.
Yet God was in no hurry to show His hand. Here was Jesus, but very much hidden away in an obscure town, a humble home, and not performing miracles or drawing attention to Himself.
He was just growing up, experiencing the human condition, sanctifying the ordinary. Just doing things that had to be done, like everyone else. This is a lesson for us, certainly, that the ordinary can be turned into an offering to God.
And another lesson, in the matter of patience. We tend to want external solutions. We would love a solution from above for the world’s problems; that God would work a few miracles and make things happen. Generally He does not do that. Sometimes He does (eg Fatima – miracle of the sun); but usually it seems we have to go the long way round, patiently discerning and applying God’s will.
So Jesus grows to manhood and we think: Now we are going to see some action! But still He works quietly, telling people not to say who He is. And though now working miracles He still allows people to doubt Him, as for example, the Pharisees quibbling about technical details.
It seems Our Lord was not prepared to go too far ahead of the people’s response. Unless they responded He would not show His full power. He was trying to gain their confidence. Philip, have I been with you all this time and still you do not know Me?... How much longer must I bear with this generation...?
Gradually the pressure built up and Our Lord was captured and killed. This is hardly what one expects from a great messianic figure. Again it might seem that God is taking a long way around of solving the world’s problems. His ways are not our ways!
Then He rises from the dead but even now not for general triumph, appearing only to His disciples. His plan is to build up the Church slowly and surely; then to set it on its path. Slow and steady growth like the human body. From very small to full maturity.
This is what God seems to want. It is the way He makes us, and the way He saves us.
We want to save the world yet all we are doing is everyday things like putting out the rubbish and washing the baby! We believe these everyday things we do can advance the cause of salvation, reflecting the hidden life of Christ.
And on the longer term scale we wait, like Simeon and Anna. Nothing ever seems to happen, we think, yet when we look back we see that a great deal has happened.
Two reasons God makes us wait:
One, to give us time to absorb His grace; to save us through our participation and not simply to act outside of us.
Two, the tremendous opposition to His plans. Things would have gone a lot faster if the human race had not committed so much sin.
Like Simeon and Anna we are ready for anything, never giving up.
Most people are not called to set the world on fire; but even if we are so called most of the time it is routine. Even saints would have done a lot of ordinary things. Only the spectacular things get recorded.
Everything will eventually get into its place but it might take longer than we want. When things are going slowly we might be able to help speed them up; otherwise we leave the timing to God.
Another year, another decade, another century. We are ready.
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