July 22, 2012

Bulletin July 22 ’12 16^th Sun Ordin B

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34

So where is my place of rest? Where do I go to slow down and relax? When I go to ‘that place’ do I bring the Lord along with me? Do I realize that it really is the Lord calling me to ‘BE’ with Him?
So often I ask people do you ever have the desire to ‘get away’ … to ‘be alone’ … maybe to just go and walk along the beach … and ‘chill out’. This ‘call’ is the called ‘contemplative’. So what does mean? Now if God is absolutely ‘crazy in love’ with me and each person then He wants to have time with me and each person. Since there is so much noise in my life then He wants this time to be a time when I’m not stressed or worried about what is coming up in my life but just a time to be at peace with Him. It’s not a time to solve problems or a time that my whole life is put in order nor is it a time when my living in my world will be forever peaceful. It’s just responding to the invitation to ‘BE’ with Him.
The fallacy in all this is that I think I have to get away to the ocean or beach where things are peaceful or it’s that ‘vacation paradise’ that is just the ‘perfect place.’ God doesn’t work that way. The ‘place’ is any physical place that I go to be in company with peace Itself, with God. And He is always inviting me; the devil clouds my vision to make me feel that this ‘place’ has to be the perfect Shangri-La. God is perfect, not the place. The place is meant to slow me down and be open in mind and spirit to God’s presence and surprises. He loves me and each person that much. This is what the Gospel reading is about today. The apostles had just come back from their first taste of ministry which included some powerful healings, and Jesus was saying, ‘Come, let’s go to a place where we can be at peace and reflect about this with God. It wasn’t an invitation to ‘escape from reality’, to get away from it all’; to “come away by yourselves to a deserted place” doesn’t mean to escape from reality. Rather it is a time to stop and ponder what had happened to them. For me and each person it is a time to look at my daily life to see what is really important and to see if I am living the superficial and not getting in touch with my gifts and why God has placed me here and what is my role in His big salvation plan.
As Fr. Gene Lauer so beautifully expresses it in his “Sunday Morning Insights”: This ‘getting away’ means: “an opportunity to talk quietly and undistracted with the divine being so that our perspectives on life can be put in order. Very simply, it means a time for a prayerful look into the very foundations of our being. The unfortunate consequence of looking at solitude as a time for escape from reality is that, when the escape is over, we take up exactly where we left off. All of our unpleasant realities are still there, unconfronted and unresolved! We come back to the same frantic rut, perhaps rested but not renewed. When we come back from a thoughtful time away, we come back more real, more able to see what is important and worthwhile in our daily reality.”
So the Lord is calling me and each person to take time in ‘my’ place. Where is my place…well down through the years I have discovered with God that it can be any place. It doesn’t have to be exotic, but it’s a place where I’m still, open and responsive to the Lord. And I need to do this. Msgr. Chet Michael in his Daily Growth Plan says that we should consider an hour a day with the Lord, a day a month, a week a year. Is this possible? Its necessary how can I make whatever is possible, possible.
And Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd and He began to teach them many things.” And the responsorial psalm today was the famous Psalm 23; The Lord is My Shepherd; is He? Each day I have to take time to ‘be in touch to let God be God to me. So I reflect on:

• Life seems to disrupt my cherished plans, sometimes in simple ways, other times seriously; but that is the reality of life. How do I react when my plans don’t work out?
  
• If I could look at people through the eyes of Christ what do I think I would see?
  
• Jesus’ critics always seemed to be negative, they saw nothing but failure; I can get that way when I become ‘too busy’. How can I stop myself? What keeps me from going to God’s place of rest for me?
  
• Do I prepare myself to stop each time I come to the Eucharist? This is God nourishing me; He knows what I need, do I allow Him to fill me with Himself, His gifts, His love and His surprises? What do I have to do to prepare for this sacred time with Him?