How much time is allowed to me?

How much time is allotted to me?

A superficial question that cannot be answered by any human person.  Yet, we all want to know each time our security is challenged with a prognosis of certain suffering or even death.  To each person a specific assignment is given by God and most try to avoid it for reasons unknown to ourselves.  There are moments when our desires become thwarted with new openings that we never would have chosen, but the Holy Spirit sets things in motion that prevents our initial goal.  

One example occurred when my wife and I were ready to sign final papers on a new house.  At that time the opportunity of the diaconate had not entered our diocese but I was an early morning 6:30 am Mass attendee.  By moving away from Wilkinsburg and St. James parish, my new location did not have an early Mass at the local parish.  If I had decided to accept this move the early Mass I was accustomed to attending would have disappeared from my routine.  For some that might not have mattered.  God wanted me to become a deacon several years in the future and without this morning Mass schedule I may not have found my way to this ministry.  I am certain the Holy Spirit placed a decision in my mind and we walked away from the new house.

It is synonymous with many people who have been sidetracked by changes in their everyday routine that have saved the lives of some people.  If God’s plan for each of us requires a sudden change of plans, we should not question the why.  

Getting back to the opening statement we must not scrutinize too deeply regarding our allotted time of life, but seek to do the will of the Father that is designed to bring more people to God through his Son Jesus Christ. 

There are some who may have an intuition of a future ministry, but even these seem to have a way of taking a detour and moving where we are needed and not where we want to go.  I am certain many priests may have a dream of this or that as their way to answer God and find that he already has a better place in his design of our ministries.  

St. Anthony of Padua wanted to fight against the enemies of the Church and became deathly ill on the ship as it approached their target land.  He wrote in his biography a chapter on the Martyrdom of Failure which helped me at a time of severe decisions in my diaconal ministry.  For both of us a failure in our lives brought a renewed direction that without it we would not have reached our eventual assignment for God and his people.

That in itself should be a reflection on how so many people find new adventures in ministry which were unknown with their original quest of ministry.  Let go and let God, an old cliche that reminds us no matter how much effort we strive in reaching our goals, God at times will place our desires on hold or change them completely for our own good and what we are to do by opening up new pathways for others in His plan for all of us.  

Ralph B. Hathaway