HOMILY WEEK 21 06 – Year II
Striking a Balance Between Prayer and Action:
Memorial of St. Monica
(1 Cor 1:26-31; Ps 33; Mt 25:14-30)
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Is contemplation incompatible with action?
The readings today invite us to find a way to balance these two important and essential elements of Christian life.
On the surface, the gospel parable of talents seems to be a call to action, to not waste our time or talent, to be productive, to have a strong work and ministry ethic, to make the most of the gifts God has given to us. Perhaps for many people over the centuries, this gospel has served to rationalize some overwork by compulsive workers who like to be active and find prayer and meditation a challenge.
Psalm 33, however, gives us a different perspective. It is God who chooses us, who looks after us, who delivers us. Our task, according to the psalmist, is to “wait for the Lord” and rejoice because our God is trustworthy.
St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, continues along that vein. God doesn’t really want our strength, knowledge, ability and status – what God prizes is our humility, our weakness, our limitations, our struggles to get by, because then God’s power can work in us and shine forth through us.
Paul gets even deeper, describing Jesus as the wisdom of God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. These last two words call to mind the two-fold mission of Jesus as Messiah – to redeem and to sanctify, to forgive and to heal. This is what God wants most of all to do for us and in us – give us new life through forgiveness, and transform us into Christlikeness through healing.
Jesus does not just forgive selectively – Jesus is forgiveness, and never stops forgiving, as the redemption of the Father. It is up to us to repent and come to him to receive that forgiveness, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation. That frees us from all guilt and fear.
But that is only half the process. Jesus also came to sanctify, to heal us. For that to happen, we need humility and self-awareness – we can’t heal what we do not know. We must go inside, deal with the inside of the cup, name our painful emotions such as anger, bitterness, jealousy and resentment, and humbly ask God to transform these into their opposites – serenity, human security, forgiveness, etc.
Even deeper, we need to become aware of our negative attitudes and short-comings such as false pride, stubborn self-will, self-righteousness, tendency to judge, etc., and pray that God will deliver us from these. How God does this is fill us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and these gently push out our defects.
Given all of this, the message seems to be clear – balance prayer, contemplation and healing on the one hand, and working for justice and making the world a better place on the other hand.
Jewish theology can be helpful here with its twin concept of Devekut and Tikkun o’lam. The first, devekut, has the meaning of clinging to God; the second, tikkun o’lam, has the meaning of repair of the world. They are like two sides of a coin – one is not meant to be present without the other. We need to balance both.
Lectio Divina is a wonderful way to do devekut – cling to God. The four basic stages are lectio – reading a passage of scripture, meditatio – pondering this word and asking what God is trying to tell us through this word, oratio – using these words to pray for the needs of the world, and finally, contemplatio – putting everything aside, trying to be present to God and soaking up God’s love. Then our ministry can flow out of that intimate relationship with God, and is much more likely to be in line with God’s will for us at that moment and in that activity.
Noted spiritual writer Richard Rohr OFM, in a prophetic way, is living out this gospel simply by establishing a Centre for Action and Contemplation. He also lives this out in his personal life – going into the desert during Lent especially, from which flows much of his writing.
Just to be complete, there is a caveat – one interpretation of the gospel is very unusual and could be called the parable of a whistle-blower. Within this perspective, the owner becomes an unjust, greedy, dishonest and unfair boss, the ones who multiply the talents are complicit in the dishonest money-making activity, and the one who buries his talent, the person who refuses to buy into a corrupt system, and who is victimized for just being honest. That certainly happens in our society today, and given that in Chapter 23 of Matthew, Jesus upbraids the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, injustice and corruption, then this parable may just have that intended interpretation.
Today, the Church offers us St. Monica as a model of contemplative prayer and a “doer of the Word.” She was born in North Africa in 332 of Christian parents. At a young age, Monica was given in marriage to Patricius; they had three children. Patricius criticized his wife’s piety and her generosity to the poor, but was always respectful of her person. Monica’s influence was such that both her husband and mother-in-law converted to Christianity. In 371, a year after his baptism, Patricius died. Monica then devoted herself to the conversion of her son Augustine, who had abandoned his Christian faith.
After 17 years of Monica’s persistent prayers Augustine was converted while in Milan, where he met Bishop Ambrose and returned to the faith. Mother and son enjoyed a close faith-based relationship from then on. Monica died during their return trip to Africa. She had said there was nothing left for her to do, all her hopes having been fulfilled. All we know about Monica comes from Augustine’s Confessions. In the tenth chapter of Book IX, he describes a spiritual experience they shared near the end of her life, and he always remembered his mother’s efforts on his behalf. She is patron saint of mothers, and a great model for us of strong faith and great compassion.
The Eucharist is an intimate moment of prayer with God, of clinging to God that in turn empowers us to go out and be God’s presence in the world, to repair the world as we balance action and contemplation.
