Today's first reading, Hebrews 6: 10-20, reminds us that "God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones."   God knows the good you and I do each day in your work as a parent, as an employee, as a husband/wife, as a fellow Sister to your companions in religious life and/or priesthood.  God also sees our efforts to do good. When we fail or fall, God is there, not to scold, but to pick us up, show us compassion and encourage us in moving on.  God does not rejoice when we fail to reach our ideals as a Christian, as a person,  as a member of our families, as mother/father, as husband,wife or as a fellow religious or fellow priest, as a pastor or as a parishioner.

As a fellow human being, Jesus knows our weaknesses and sympathizes with us. He knows the difficulties we face as human beings.  God is always assisting us in the "baby steps" we take in our efforts to love as He loves, to forgive as He forgives, to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with Him as our Guide, our Comforter, our Sanctifier!  Paul encourages us "who have taken refuge [in Christ Jesus]...to hold fast to the hope that lies before us," the hope of eternal life. Jesus has already, Paul reminds us, "entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."  Our salvation is guaranteed by Jesus' life, death and resurrection. And our salvation begins here as we struggle to grow in holiness!

God Does Not Grow Weary and We Live and Move and Have our Being in the Lord

Isaiah, in today’s first reading, Isaiah 4: 25-31, God says to us that by “his great might and the strength of his power,” no one person from the Israelites’ army “is missing! Why, O Jacob,” God asks, “do you say, and declare, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. Do you not know or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny. He gives strength to the fainting; for the weak he makes vigor abound. Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall, they that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”

It is not uncommon for you or I, or anyone, for that matter, to come to a point in life at times when it seems as though God has forgotten us, that what is happening in our family’s, friend’s or personal life is not known to God, that our rights are being disregarded even by our Creator. When my mother died leaving four primary-school children without a mother, I grew weary. My weariness multiplied when, eight years later, a brother died at age 18 and a few months after his death, the doctors informed my older sister, and us,  that they could not save her from death.  My hope was anchored in the Lord, though I did not feel it. My strength was renewed over time.

Jesus says to us, in today’s Gospel, Mt. 11: 28-30, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” I am so blessed to have been given faith through my parents. They always turned to the Lord in their need and taught me the same. In religious life, also, the center of our lives each day is seeking the Lord above all.  I learned from early on through my parents and later on through my training in religious life to take my burdens to the Lord in prayer on a daily basis and to seek the Lord above all else.

What helps you through the difficult moments of your life? Who taught you to rely upon the Lord and to bring all of your concerns to God in prayer when weariness zaps your energy and strength?