The time has not yet come?

You know what you should do. You know what godly things you have been called to do.

But… there are these other things to be done first.

The time has not yet come, you think, to do the right thing: what God wants, what his people need.

I know what I should do. I know what godly things I have been called to do.

But… there are these other things to be taken care of first.

The time has not yet come, I say to myself, to do the right thing: what God wants, what his people need.

(Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner. Orate pro me, fratres.)

So it was in the time of today’s first reading (Haggai 1:1-8).

The people of God knew what they should do. They knew what godly thing they had been called to do.

But… there were other things to be done first.

Thus says the LORD of hosts:
This people says:
“The time has not yet come
to rebuild the house of the LORD.”

God sets them straight.

(Then this word of the LORD came through Haggai, the prophet:)
Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses,
while this house lies in ruins?

What God said then to his people, he also says to us: to you and to me.

Now thus says the LORD of hosts:
Consider your ways!

You have sown much,
but have brought in little;
you have eaten,
but have not been satisfied;
You have drunk,
but have not been exhilarated;
have clothed yourselves,
but not been warmed;
And whoever earned wages
earned them for a bag with holes in it.

(Boy! Doesn’t that describe the rat race of work and consumption in which many of us live?)

Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Consider your ways!

Has not the time already come NOW to focus our lives on what God wants us to do?

Is it not time to stop procrastinating and, without forsaking our godly responsibilities, start doing NOW the things God has called us to do in our lives?

Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Consider your ways!

The time has come.

May God give us the strength and light our path.