More and more people today seem to be concerned with living healthy lives. And it seems that the key to a healthy life is balance, whether it comes to our diet or to our lifestyle, we are told to keep a healthy balance. It is not much different when it comes to our spiritual lives.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that as Christians we must keep a good balance between prayer and action. Saint Pope John Paul II spoke of this balance often when he reminded us that we are called to be “contemplatives in action”. This means that all of our actions as Christians must be supported by a good prayer life. In today’s gospel we encounter Martha and Mary. Martha is very busy trying to be a good hostess. She is not criticized by Jesus for being busy, but for being too busy. She had no time to listen to Jesus, to spend time with Him, because she was too busy trying to serve Him.
The same can happen in our lives. We can be so busy trying to provide for our families that we can run out of time to be with our families. We can be so busy with driving our children to different activities, that we may run out of time to get to know our children, to listen to them, to “waste" some time with them. And the same can be true with our God. We can be so busy trying to serve our God that we can run out of time to talk to God and to listen to Him. Without our God, without His Word, His encouragement, all of our actions leave us drained and empty. We become slaves of our actions, always running out of time even though there are still so many things to be done.
Today let us stop and try to listen to the message of Jesus who may say: “You never listen to my voice any more, and I have so much to tell you, so much to teach you”. God wants to restore balance in our lives in order to help us. We are called to be “contemplatives in action”. We are called to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen. When our lives are so busy that we cannot seem to find time for anything, it is then that we must make time for God in our lives, make time for prayer. When we do this we will learn how to do all things that we must do not just out of obligation, but out of love. Make time this summer for a good spiritual book, for some quiet time with the Bible, for some form of meditation and reflection. It will help restore the balance and lead to a healthy life.
Fr. Wojtek Kuzma