In his second letter to the bishop Timothy, St. Paul instructs his how to carry out the office:
Often you will hear people interpret "whether it is convenient or inconvenient" as whether people want to hear it or not. But there is another dimension to it.
As anyone in any ministry can attest, as much as we may attempt to herd people into sechedules, systems, and programs, people will continue to show up in need at inconvenient times. We proclaim the word not just with preaching and teaching but through personal encounters. "the word" we proclaim a not a book, it is a person, "and the word became flesh". The word is Jesus Christ.
St. Paul challenges all of us to slow down. Some times we will need to convince, other times reprimand, other times encourage. But the hard part is that we must do it with "all patience". Not just some or a lot, but all.
Most likely everyone of us will have someone hit us with something at the most inconvenient moment. Can we with all patience show them the face of Christ?
