It always strike me that we are told by St. Luke on this Feast of the Assumption that when Mary set out to visit her cousin Elizabeth, that she traveled “in haste.” It would just never occur to me that the Blessed Mother would ever do anything in a manner that could be considered “hasty” in any way. Aren’t we taught that “Haste makes waste,” and that we should “Look before we leap,” etc. etc.? Yet, our Blessed Mother, we are told, set out proceeding “in haste.” There must be a lesson here for us. Could it be that sometimes it is right for us to in fact, “proceed in haste” when we know exactly what the Lord wants us to do? Isn’t it true that while it may indeed often be difficult to clearly discern God’s will it is also true that at any given moment there are any number of things that we know that God wants us to do but for some reason or other we have not yet done them? Are there not people that we are called to forgive right now? Are there not people from whom we should be seeking forgiveness right now? Are there not any number of other people in our lives to whom we should be reaching out in some kind of loving way right now? And yet we do not. We come up with some reason, some excuse as to why we cannot do this or that right now. We rationalize that we are too busy, that it is not yet the right time, or that someone else needs to take a certain step before we do anything. But when it comes right down to it, we know that it is all nonsense, that we are so adept at coming up with one excuse after another in order to rationalize not doing the will of God in the present moment. We are called to forgive. Right now! We are called to seek forgiveness. Right now! We are called to reach out to others in charity and love. Right now! There is never any excuse for us to put off doing these types of things. Mary set out in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Let us always set out in haste to do the will of God.