Patience with the Promise

After reading the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the question of patience for the fulfillment of the Promise arises. When we review salvation history in the Christian tradition many of the promised events have occurred. The Eucharistic people mark Jesus incarnation as the significant promise. The letter to the Galatians is Paul’s proclamation of the consequence of the intimate relationship with the Divine through Jesus. This relationship, as Peter also recognizes through the spontaneous response of the indwelling Spirit in Luke’s Gospel, makes all divisions and categories of humanity superseded. Human identity is as “children of God”. Our heritage, as Luke reminds, is from Abraham. It is a heritage which includes all humanity and specifically today needs to celebrate the Promise for all “people of the Book”, Jew, Christian and Muslim. Part of the difficulty for disciples to which Luke refers is the need to be patience with Providence for the complete fulfillment of the Promise