1 Tim 4:12-16 / Lk 7:36-50
A priest was ministering to the poorest of the poor, and one day he read to them today’s gospel story about Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet and drying them with her hair. As he was reading, the priest heard a quiet sobbing. He looked up and saw a thin young girl whose face was dirty, scarred, and wet with tears. “Father,” she asked, “will he ever come again, the one who forgave the woman? I’ve heard he’ll come again. Will it be soon?”
The priest replied that, yes, Jesus would come again and that it might be soon. That caused her to sob all the more, till finally she asked, “Father, can’t he wait a little while. My hair ain’t long enough yet to wipe his feet.”
God is very good at waiting for us. Sometimes, indeed, it takes years and years for us to wake up and see where real life is to be found and where it’s not. And even after we do get clear, the process of matching our deeds to our words and matching our lives to our convictions too often goes very slowly.
There is no limit to God’s patience with us or his willingness to forgive us and give us second chances. We are the ones who are working against the clock. We have a limited number of days, and one day will be our last day. What will we have to show for all that time? What will we have of the things that really matter? The only things we can carry with us when we leave this world are our hearts. And that brings us to the big question of the day: What kind of heart are we making for ourselves with the dozens and hundreds of tiny choices we make every day? Is it the kind of heart that we want to take home to God? Now’s the time to find a good answer for that question…while there’s still time!
