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February 5, 2012
Pastor's
Perspective
In Mark’s Gospel today Jesus is surrounded with a crowd of folks
who come to him with all sorts of needs. “When it was evening
after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by
demons . . . The whole town was gathered at the door.” After
caring for each of them, he must have been exhausted.
Even Jesus needed to go apart for silent prayer to keep things in
balance and to be in touch with his Father. Like him, in our busy
and noise-filled lives we too need to go apart . . . “To be still and
know that he is God” and that he is present for us in the stillness.
Many years ago, Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote a meditation on this
passage. It’s found in his book Out of Solitude and it goes like
this:
In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and
went off to a lonely place and prayed there.” In the middle of
sentences loaded with action – healing suffering people, casting out
devils, responding to impatient disciples, traveling from town to town
and preaching from synagogue to synagogue – we find these quiet
words: “In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the
house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.” In the
center of breathless activities we hear a restful breathing.
Surrounded by hours of moving we find a moment of quiet
stillness. In the heart of much involvement there are words of
withdrawal. In the midst of action there is contemplation.
And after much togetherness there is solitude. The more I read
this nearly silent sentence locked in between the loud words of action,
the more I have the sense that the secret of Jesus’ ministry is hidden
in that lonely place where he went to pray, early in the morning, long
before the dawn.
In the lonely place Jesus finds the courage to follow God’s will and
not his own; to speak God’s words and not his own; to do God’s work and
not his own. He reminds us constantly” “I can do nothing by
myself . . . my aim is to do not my own will, but the will of him
who sent me” (Jn 5:30). And again, “The words I say to you I do
not speak as from myself: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing
this work” (Jn 14:10). It is in the lonely place, where Jesus
enters into intimacy with the Father, that his ministry is born.
I want to reflect on this lonely place in our lives. Somewhere we
know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger.
Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that
without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance
closeness cannot cure. Somewhere we know that without a lonely
place our actions quickly become empty gestures. The careful
balance between silence and words, withdrawal and involvement, distance
and closeness, solitude and community forms the basis of the Christian
life and should therefore be the subject of our most personal attention.
Peace,
Fr. Chuck
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