19 June 2017
Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
From time to time, I am asked why I joined the Jesuits so young (I was 19 when I entered). The basic reason I give is that I knew it was the right time. I knew that I wanted to be a Jesuit, so why waste time in my life being not-a-Jesuit? People I know who married unusually young give the same response when asked why they didn’t wait–they knew that they wanted to be married to their spouse, so they wanted to get started being married to that person as soon as they could. Once you know the best place to be, why be elsewhere?
Paul has much the same attitude as he writes to the Corinthians today, urging them that “now is a very acceptable time […] now is the day of salvation.” God does not just call us to do things in any old time. Just as Jesus came “in the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4), at the most appropriate moment, so, too does God call us at particular moments in time. God gives us grace at particular moments for particular tasks, and so we must be attentive to those moments instead of saying “I’ll do it when I do it.” Sometimes, of course, God’s will is indeed for us to wait for the right moment. But when we do know the moment is right, we should strike while the iron is hot–and the grace is being offered.