Leicester, 21st July 2013

 

I’d like to say just three words.

 

1. Firstly, Martha didn’t do any wrong things. After all, somebody had to prepare something to eat. Somebody had to set the table. As Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. Did Martha do anything wrong?
The same is with the Church.
When I was studying in Rome and Jerusalem I used to spend summers in different countries and different parishes. In 8 years I’ve been to Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Israel, Ireland, USA. In England I covered priests in Leicester, Skegness, Louth, Kirkham, Maidstone, Scunthorpe. And after all these experiences I can honestly say that the Catholic Church is very similar to Martha. We do a lot of things. We are distracted with all the serving. We worry and fret about so many things: church services, meetings, pilgrimages, booklets, schools, people visiting, etc. How many priests are doing things that have nothing common with priesthood….? God knows alone. And what is amazing all these things are not wrong things. So where is the problem?
The problem is that we chose too often a good part instead of a better one.
Jesus says:
„I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!” (Mat 6:25)

 

2. Secondly, what is the better part?
The better part is to sit down at the Lord’s feet and listen to God speaking.
Last year I attended Jesuits spiritual exercises in Warsaw. It was amazing to notice that after 6 days I felt better, happier, freer. What did we do? Nothing special. We just meditated. We just listened to God.
It’s incredible how much time we spend to chat with our friends, to check news or to make shopping and how little we sit down only to listed to God speaking.
I don’t want to complain. I’d like only to encourage you and myself to listen to God.
„Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one, only Lord” (Mar 12:29)
„It is in that way faith comes, from hearing, and that means hearing the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17)
How can the people believe if they not hear God?
How can they love God if they don’t speak with him?
How can we be strong and free if we are not close to God?
It is not true that the times changed.
It is not true that in the modern world it is more difficult to believe in God.
What we need only is to listen to God.
Nothing else. Nothing more. 

 

3. Lastly, it’s very difficult to sit beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
It’s very difficult because sometimes we don’t know where are the feet of the Lord.
It’s very difficult because we are not sure if this is really Jesus who speaks.
It’s easier to do a lot of things that are more specific, more visible, more tangible.
It’s easier to say the mass than to listen to the Lord.
It’s easier to read the reading than to listen to God.
It’s easier to clean the church than to listen to what I have to clean in my life.
It’s easier to prepare a lunch than to listen to what I should eat every day.
However, we are not the people who want to take life easy.
Let us think where the feet of the Lord are!
Let us listen to him!
Because this is the better part and it will not be taken from us.