Thursday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
from the Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
Verse 11: They
left everything and followed Him.
We can’t do that, can we? Just up and leave everything:
fishing nets, homes, family, friends, career, hobbies, interests, concerns,
fears, hopes, preoccupations, obsessions, weaknesses of body, soul and spirit,
habits, thoughts, emotions, medical conditions, mistakes, regrets, resentments,
grudges, finances, knick knacks, furnishings, computers, cell phones,
accomplishments and sources of pride, psychological conditions and impediments,
toiletries, personal libraries . . . . .
But there are some things on that list that we could leave
behind for a time, perhaps, especially if we work to empty ourselves out during
a time of contemplative prayer.
I like to think of contemplative prayer or anything else it
may be called: meditation, centering prayer, prayer of silence, prayer of
presence, mindfulness and the like, I like to think of these things as a time
of escape, a time of deliverance, a time of freedom, where we place ourselves
in the presence of the Lord and hear His silent call deep within our hearts and
souls: follow me.
During such times, we don’t need to think about what
that might mean, to follow Him, because that is precisely what we seek to
silence as we simply follow our breathing and perhaps recite a mantra or the
Jesus Prayer, or a simple prayer word, or we gaze upon the light of a single
candle and lose our attention there.
I once heard it described this way: you are swimming in the
ocean and the waves grow intense and come crashing in on you from all directions,
and you are in danger of being torn apart by the power of what assails you, so
you dive deep down into the ocean, down beneath the waves where the waters are
silent and peaceful, and then you swim out the other side of the turbulence and
you are safe at last.
Can you close your eyes and do that, even if for only a
minute, even if for only half a minute? During that time, God speaks to your
soul in words that you cannot hear; the Spirit within you cries out to the
Father and calls Him “Daddy” (Abba), and you don’t need to hear, all you need
to do is taste the silence and the time of freedom.
Very often when we leave “all” behind and rest in the Lord,
we find that we emerge with solutions and answers to the things that we need to
tend to in our busy lives; often we find the words to speak that we couldn’t
have spoken before; often we find ourselves looking at the world around us in a
different way; often we find ourselves loving without any required conditions
placed on the recipients of our love.
Can you do it now for just a few seconds (or longer if you
are able)? When you emerge from it, my friends, your life has a richness that
all the things you have chased after could never give you.
God bless you.
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