Patient Endurance and Hope-filled Efforts

February 1, 2019

Friday, 3rd week in Ordinary time
Hebrews 10: 32-39; Mark 4: 26-34

I remember seeing this cartoon long back sent via the social network, and I went in search of it to place it here! We see a man digging a tunnel in search of precious metals and at a point he decides to stop his pursuit. Only we the viewers see that the man was just a few inches away from the treasure hidden away in the ground! "You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised", says the Word today. 

We cannot be like the nursery kids on a class project of growing a plant in the pot. From the time they plant a seed, they would keep returning to the pot every other minute to see if something has grown. The Reign of God grows in silence and obscurity; you will never know it is there around until you really believe it to be. That is why Jesus declared, 'the Reign of God is amidst you; within you' (cf. Lk 17: 21). 

Look at those beautiful words that letter to the Hebrews addresses us with today: we are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved! (v.39). It takes faith to remain when everything seems to be working against you!  It takes patience to hold on when events and persons come against you with plans and expressions so discouraging or disparaging. It takes hope to keep working towards good and towards perfection, come what may. It takes Christ to keep loving every one even amidst all these undesirable experiences!

In patient endurance and hope-filled efforts one will unlock the levels towards a fuller realisation of the Reign which is already there growing within us, among us and allover us!