Earthly affairs can wait; things of God demand action now, pope says

Temporal things can wait; only the things of God merit acting upon without hesitation, Pope Benedict XVI said.

God's words and his will are the only things "that are truly urgent for our lives," he said.

Celebrating an early morning Mass Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the pope reflected on the reading from the Gospel of Luke in which Mary visits Elizabeth "in haste" after the angel Gabriel announced to Mary God's plan that she conceive the son of God.

Mary's sense of haste is important, the pope said, because it shows "the only things in the world that merit haste are exactly the things of God."

Photo: CNS/Paul Haring