16th
Sunday of Ordinary Time – July 18, 2021
Have you ever blown
the dust off your yearbook from high school and strolled down memory lane?
Familiar faces may arouse smiles and other photos may spark one memory after
another.
For a high school yearbook, the soon-to-be graduates are asked to
think about the next twenty
years and answer, “What do I want to do?”
The plan was to record our dreams and goals in the
yearbook, then evaluate them
when we would meet again at ten- or twenty- year reunion, sort
of a
decade-by-decade checkup. Some goals were serious, some funny, a few could not
be printed! But all were describing what they wanted to be doing.
I was reminded of
high school yearbooks when reflecting on next Sunday’s gospel from Mark.
We
know that Mark’s gospel is the shortest of the gospels, and that he keeps his
stories
short, unlike the other gospel writers who are more descriptive. With
Mark we need to use
our imagination (lexio divina or meditation) to fill out
the story.
The first part of the
gospel proclaims the value of coming away from our everyday cares,
in order to
be wholly present to the Lord, In our own faith life we need such quiet
moments,
times when we try to be present to the Lord. “The apostles gathered
around Jesus, and told
him all that they had done and taught. He said to them,
‘Come away to a deserted place all
by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many
were coming and going, and they had no leisure
even to eat.”
Although Jesus had to
change his plans when they were interrupted by the crowd that followed
them to
the ‘deserted place’, we see his first instinct was to help the apostles
reflect
on their experience of ministry. He didn’t want them to be caught up on
what they fixed
but upon who they were. Their identity was not in driving out
evil spirits. Jesus wanted
to focus on who they were as chosen, called and
loved by God through Jesus Christ. They
were special people not because of what
they did (doing) but because of who they were (being).
What we want to do is
not nearly as important as what we want to be. It’s possible to do
lots of
things yet be zero as a person. Doing is usually connected with a vocation or
career,
how we make a living. Being is much deeper. It relates to character,
who we are, and how
we make a life. Doing is tied in closely with activity,
accomplishments, and tangible
things—like salary, prestige, roles and trophies.
Being, on the other hand, has more
to do with the kind of people we become in
our hearts. Of the two, being will ultimately
outdistance doing every time. It
may take half a lifetime to perfect, but hands down,
it’s far more valuable.
And lasting. And inspiring.
“What we want to do
is not nearly as important as what we want to be.” (Charles R. Swindoll).
In
God’s Book, both are essential. However,
God does make it clear that what we do grows
out of who we are, who we want to
be.
Jesus had the habit
of spending time alone with God. It was those times of presence to God
in
prayer that enabled him to be present to others in his ministry, no matter who
they were
or how they turned up. Our own coming away to be with the Lord will
help us, also, to be
present to those who come into our lives. In Christ we
have a secure and stable basis for
worth and dignity, because these are founded
on what God has done for us and in us.
Having been re-created and incorporated
into the glorified life of the ascended Christ,
God has penetrated to the very
roots of our being and given us a new nature. Thus, being
should have priority
over doing, but it should also be expressed in doing. Our quiet moments
with
God, our desert times, help us to be attentive to who
we are in the eyes of God, which
helps us do the works of God with the
compassion we have received from God.
Fr. Don, cp