Hebrews 2:14-18. Psalm 105:1-4, 6-9. Mark 1:29-39.
In the morning, long before dawn, Jesus got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.
Gospels were written that we may identify ourselves with Jesus Christ and his attitudes. Today's gospel reading presents a beautiful attitude of his that gives meaning to his ministry. Jesus finds “a lonely place” for prayer “long before dawn.” This speaks volumes, and perhaps we don't need too much of commentary and explanation. As a follower of Jesus, we need to find our proper and “lonely” time and space for communion with God. It is not always easy to do this, but that is the only way we can find our true freedom of being the children of God.
Jesus exhibits this true freedom in his ministry as seen in today's gospel again. When the disciples find him and say, “Everybody is looking for you,” Jesus unhesitatingly says, “Let us go elsewhere so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.” We too can attain this freedom if we imitate Jesus, if we find ourselves time and place to relate to God who is our Father and Mother, who is the Source and Origin of everything.
In other words, we serve the world by being spiritually well, by being connected to our Source. The first questions therefore are not: “How much do we do?” or “How many people do we help out?” but “Are we interiorly at peace?” The distinction between contemplation and action can be misleading. Jesus’ actions flowed from his interior communion with God. His presence itself was healing, and it changed the world. In a sense he didn’t do anything! “Everyone who touched him was healed” (Mark 6:56).
Our presence itself can be healing if we are connected to the Source. That is the only way we are asked to serve the world. If we are not connected to the Source we will only transmit our compulsions, restlessness and impatience.
The way for us to be in this world is to focus on the spiritual life – our own as well as the spiritual life of each one of the people that we meet. All the rest pales before these “spiritual events,” which will become part of our enduring search for the truth of life and the love of God.
The primal freedom is the freedom to be our own self, the freedom to live in the truth despite all circumstances. This is what we need to aim at always. Freedom to be ourselves, freedom to be God’s Beloved always.
We have no real access to who we really are except in God. Only when we rest in God can we find the safety, the spaciousness, and the freedom to be who we are.
In prayer, you can find your true freedom. Freedom is not about having to do what you want to do. True freedom instead is wanting to do what you have to do.
Prayer is that lonely place where we have to wait and observe. We wait in silence. In silence all our usual compulsions and patterns assault us. Our patterns of control, addiction, negativity, tension, anger, and fear assert themselves. That’s why most people give up prayer rather quickly. We need a lot of time and space to discover our true freedom.
We may say that we are free, but are we really free interiorly? Are there aspects in our lives that show inner slaveries—compulsions, patterns of control and resistance and addiction, abuse of money, power and sex, workaholism and activism?
We all need to find that lonely place.....
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