Romans 8:18-25 / Luke 13:18-21 (2019)
Whenever we sigh, we can be telling others a few things.
We may be bored, as when we sigh in a long boring meeting; we may feel helpless in that we cannot change a situation and so we sigh; we may be frustrated that we cannot get something to work, and so we sigh.
But sighing is not as serious as groaning. Groaning could mean that we are heavily burdened and undergoing pain and maybe even struggling to stay alive.
The 1st reading says that the entire creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth.
Not just creation but we too are groaning inwardly. The groaning here is the longing to be set free. But to be set free from what?
It is to be set free from the clutches of the world that makes us want to think that all in life is just the here and now.
Yes, we are subjected to the worldly thinking that the temporary is the eternity. And people do succumb to the clutches of this worldly thinking and they live wildly with the pleasures and desires of life.
But for us, we know that salvation lies in eternity. And St. Paul says at the beginning of the 1st reading that he considered the sufferings of this life can never be compared to the glory that is waiting for us in eternity.
Still, we need to struggle to believe in that salvation that God has promised those who remain faithful to him.
May our faith be like the mustard seed and the yeast in the parables in the gospel. May our faith keep growing, despite the groaning, and one day reach the eternity of heaven.