Do we make haste when it comes to the things of God? Not often, do we. Except when death is near, and not even then for some of us.
The Holy Father at Christmas Mass this past year spoke on this theme. Here is an excerpt from the English translation made available by the Osservatore Romano.
“Let us return to the Christmas Gospel. It tells us that after listening to the Angel’s message, the shepherds said one to another: “‘Let us go over to Bethlehem’…. they went at once” (Lk 2: 15f.). “They made haste” is literally what the Greek text says. What had been announced to them was so important that they had to go immediately. In fact, what had been said to them was utterly out of the ordinary. It changed the world. The Saviour is born. The long-awaited Son of David has come into the world in his own city. What could be more important? No doubt they were partly driven by curiousity, but first and foremost it was their excitement at the wonderful news that had been conveyed to them, of all people, to the little ones, to the seemingly unimportant. They made haste; they went at once.
“In our daily life, unfortunately it is not like that. For most people, the things of God are not given priority, they do not impose themselves on us directly. And so the great majority of us tend to postpone them. First we do what seems urgent here and now. In the list of priorities God is often more or less at the end. We can always deal with that later, we tend to think. The Gospel tells us: God is the highest priority. If anything in our life deserves haste without delay, then, it is God’s work alone.” — Benedict XVI, December 24, 2009 as reported in the Osservatore Romano.
For a complete text of the Pope’s homily, log on to:
