God’s Time-Homily for Thursday of the 15th week in ordinary time 20TH JULY 2023

HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 15TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Exodus 3:13-20; Ps.105; Matthew 11:28-30

God’s Time

The suffering of the Israelites in the land of Egypt started before the birth of Moses. Invariably, their cry to God for redemption had begun before Moses was born. Yet it was not until Moses was born and grown into a man that was old enough to marry, that God chose to come to the aid of the suffering Israelites. Speaking through Moses, God said to the Israelites: “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt”. This means that from the very beginning of their cry, God heard them but He had his own plan and his own timing.

We may not be able to understand why God chose to delay for so long a time. However, the Lord said: “I promise that I will bring you up out of affliction in Egypt”. This means that though in our eyes and calculations, the Lord may seem to delay, in the final analysis, he will not fail to come to our aid. Usually, we will associate delay with disappointment. When someone is delaying at something, we can conclude that either he/she will no longer turn up or he/she will not be effective as expected due to the time wasted.

This is not so with our God. Whenever he chooses to act, He brings everything into perfection. This knowledge about God should give us some level of confidence in our relationship with Him. Sometimes when answers seem not to be coming from God, there is this temptation to loose faith in prayer. Some persons have stopped praying because they have prayed and nothing happened. Some persons have stopped engaging in any spiritual exercise because they feel overwhelmed by their weaknesses that continues to accuse them whenever they want to interact with their God; in fact, they have given up hope of ever getting out of their sinful habits.

Beloved, the Lord says to us in the gospel reading: “come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. By this, God is telling us that He is a specialist in that situation that is drifting us away from Him. God is specialized in taking away whatever discourages us from having a continuous personal encounter with Him.

Therefore, the psalmist today reiterates that God can never fail in fulfilling his promises towards us. Do not loose heart in praying; do not think that God does not listen to you; do not think that God is not aware; do not imagine that God has resolved never to come to your aid. See, for every petition we bring before God, there is an appointed time for Him to act. To trust God means to always wait for that appointed time. Two things are certain here: God’s time is the best, and God’s time will surely come.