We are approaching three years since my dad passed away, and I have been thinking about all the difficult and beautiful lessons that I have learned through that process of grieving.
Some have been about working through grief and others have been about relying on the support of those who care. But one unpleasant lesson learned in the wake of Dad’s death verified an important truth that the Archbishop gave during the homily at a friend’s ordination. He told those being ordained that their ministry would not be one of convenience, and it would not happen on their terms. In other words, people need help when they need help, and in the same way that kids don’t plan their emergencies around their parents’ schedules, the people of God and their needs occasionally intrude into personally difficult situations. In my case, the day after my dad died, someone stuck a post it note on my office mailbox expressing their condolences and asking me to finish some paperwork for them because “they aren’t getting any younger.” 

It certainly wasn’t the most tactful thing to do, to say the least. But the Gospel today leads off with the same phenomenon; Jesus hears about the death of the precursor, His cousin, John the Baptist, and He wants to go off and have some time by Himself, presumably to pray. Again
and again in the Gospels Jesus goes off looking for solitude and true recreation, and He is consistently pulled away from that time to care for the needs of the flock. Whether they are seeking to be fed physically or spiritually, they won’t rest until they have encountered Christ. It’s no wonder that Jesus tells everyone that Mary chose the better part and it shall not be taken from her. He’s been seeking to do the same, but to no avail.
 
What we never see Jesus do is give up trying because He is so constantly interrupted when seeking prayer. Nor did the Archbishop say, “People will need you at inconvenient times
so you might as well give up on the interior life and never make your Holy Hour or take a retreat.” Things are inconvenient, and life is messy. But making prayer a priority
counterintuitively gives us more time, not less. If we build our day around time spent with God, it gives structure and deeper purpose to the other relationships in our lives. Prayer can replace the fruitless worrying and despair in our lives instead of replacing our effectiveness and the important ministry we carry out in our families and our communities. But if we try to go without that time in prayer because it’s
inconvenient, we separate ourselves from Christ, who tells us again and again that He is the true vine, and that without Him, we can do nothing. 
 
In the Gospels, when Jesus seemingly most needs to be proactive, that is when He is most likely to slow down and pray. In the eyes of the world, it makes no sense, but if we recognize Jesus as the source of all good things that pour forth through the instruments of our ministries, then we can see that rooting our words, actions, and service to others in time spent with Jesus will ultimately allow us to connect people to Jesus, rather than simply offer them ourselves. Focus on being a reservoir of God’s love, so that when you are called upon at inopportune times, you have an abundance of that love to sustain you and the people you are called to serve. Come spend time with Jesus in Adoration, and let Him share your worries.

Prayers always,
Fr. McC