Love and balance

The first letter of John is a beautiful reflection on love.  God loved us enough to send His Son to forgive our sins and all He asks of us in return is to love Him and to love one another.  How difficult that is at this time in our world.  This is one of those times when loving our neighbor as our self can be a challenge.  Spending more time in prayer and reflection has helped me not be caught up in the politics of the COVID-19 virus, schools reopening, masks versus no masks, riots, and all the unrest that remind me of the 1960s and early 1970s.  This has been a time when I’m learning about the blessings and graces that come from love.

Saints Martha and Mary are examples of the two types of Christian love and balance.  Love shown in the service to others and the love shown to God.  Martha is all upset because she’s become so focused on her part that she’s forgotten about the other part of serving others.  Taking time to be with them and in this case taking time to be with God (Luke 10:38-42).  Taking time for God to gain perspective on life is an important activity to put into our lives at this time.  To find that balance of being Martha and Mary can bring balance back into our lives.  With what seems like everything being topsy-turvy, it’s balance that we desire.

I had a couple of flashback memories today during my reflection time.   The first is that whenever my mom and I went somewhere and it was just the two of us in the car, she would inevitably ask, “Should we pray the rosary?  Or the Divine Mercy Chaplet?  We have 15 minutes to spare!”  I would most often reply, “Sure!”, sometimes with less than a vigorous demeanor because of other matters on my mind, but there were many times that I would find an excuse to decline.  The latter were the times I was Martha to my mom’s Mary.  When I accepted Mom’s invitations to pray with her though, I remember always feeling more refreshed and serene spiritually and physically when we were finished; a feeling I still get today when I focus totally on my prayers instead of my worries about worldly issues. 

My second memory is of a daily mass I attended years ago.  At two different points during the mass, cell phones started ringing!  They were turned off rather quickly, but not before taking everyone’s attention from the liturgy to try and locate the source of the interruptions.  Before the final blessing and dismissal the priest said, “It’s necessary that I speak about respect for Our Lord for a few minutes.”  He spoke about the reverential attitude we should exhibit when we enter the house of God to listen to His Word and receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of His Son.  Then he strongly suggested that we should leave our cell phones in our cars before coming to see our Lord saying, “If we take the time to come to His house but we can’t knock on the door because our hands are holding cell phones, why should He open the door?  Christ is always present to us.... just waiting for us to knock and let Him be a more prominent part of our life.  Do we want to knock?”

May you and your families stay safe and healthy during these days. Let’s continue to pray for our families, friends, country, and world.