4 October 2016 - busy but not anxious

[ Today's Readings ]

“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 

This is a complaint Saint Francis never made. Yet he is renowned for his service. He is famous for the active life whereas Mary seems to be praised for choosing the more contemplative approach which will not be taken from her. How can the one who is by most accounts the greatest saint of the Roman Catholic Church not fit this mold? It is because this is not meant to be an either/or duality. As with many things in the Catholic Church it is both/and. Francis is active. He serves and loves and gives. But it stems from and flows into his contemplation. It begins, the story goes, at the collapsed church building when he hears God:

Kneeling before an image of the Crucified, he was filled with great fervor and consolation as he prayed. While his tear-filled eyes were gazing at the Lord's cross, he heard with his bodily ears a voice coming from the cross, telling him three times: 'Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin.'

- from St. Bonaventure's Life of Francis

Thus begins his active life. It leads not away from contemplation but rather to a union with Jesus so profound that it is marked externally by the wounds of the stigmata. One thinks also of Saint Teresa of Calcutta who takes the name of a contemplative Carmelite. She does indeed find prayer to be the essential basis of her life. But it is a life which is marked with the greatest active charity one can imagine.

Paul too is active. At first he is active in the wrong way.

You heard of my former way of life in Judaism,
how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure
and tried to destroy it, 
and progressed in Judaism
beyond many of my contemporaries among my race,
since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.

It is only when true contemplation marks his action that it takes on value.

But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart
and called me through his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me,
so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles,
I did not immediately consult flesh and blood

There are a million ways we can show the world the active love God has for it. We need to begin with prayer so that he can guide us in the way he wants us to go. Then we will not be "anxious and worried about many things." We will not be separated from God by our service but instead be moving as his hands and feet.

Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

I know he didn't write it, but I think the sense is right.