One of Jesus’ new disciples, Peter, has a sick mother-in-law. Jesus goes to her and heals her of a fever. Emerging from her solitude of suffering, she immediately begins to be of service to those in her home. When others learn of her healing it is written, “the whole town was at the door.” Jesus is kept well into the night healing people. At dawn he ascends a mountain for a quiet place to pray. In time disciples find him. He emerges from his solitude of prayer and immediately begins to be of service again to those in other villages. “For this purpose have I come.”
The Gospel story expresses the healthy balance of contemplation and action in our lives. Our contemplative communion with a fullness of Presence is balanced with active love and healing. Nature helps our balance. Nature embodies such balance; a contemplative life force being as it is created to be and active in the world of which it is a part. So too when we look upon ourselves we can experience our self in balance. We can behold our loving communion. We are a contemplative life force being as we are created to be and active in the world of which we are a part. We have a unique opportunity to hold and be held in communion and in active love and healing when we are sick. This is in contrast to the first reading in which Job is beset with sickness. He voices the ancient belief that God has now abandoned him. Sickness was believed proof of God rejecting a person. It is an understandable belief but one that brings no healing. What seems counter-intuitive, to behold Real Presence in ourselves and others when we are suffering, brings healing. We behold loving Presence in ourselves in experiences of our being sick, in other persons when they are sick. We are in contemplative communion and active witness that brings healing.
The Center for Action and Contemplation gives witness to beholding loving Real Presence. The community does so both in contemplative prayer and in service for others. The Center was founded in in 1987 in Albuquerque New Mexico by Franciscan Richard Rohr and a community of seekers wanting to live balanced lives. They “wanted to be radical in both senses of the word, simultaneously rooted in tradition and boldly experimental.” They wanted deep involvement with the Presence of God within them and around them.”
Prayer: Spirit, we trust in in loving Presence
Question: When frailty makes action difficult, can I trust my prayer is my service?
February 04, 2018 Gospel Mark 1:29-39 Firth Sunday in Ordinary Time