A religious Sister in a convent got up early in the morning – her usual time – and got dressed to go for Holy Mass. It was the crowning glory of her day. As she was leaving her quarters, the Mother Superior spotted her. The Superior needed help with an elderly person on a chore. The excitement drained from the religious sister’s face. She would now be late for Mass. The Superior sensed her discomfort and redirected the request to another sister in the convent.
The
religious sister returned from Mass, deflated. The Mother Superior noticed her
new disposition – from excitement to deflation. She enquired if all was good
with her. She said not really. “I rushed to be with Jesus because that’s what I
thought He wanted of me, but what Jesus really wanted was for me to be with
Him, helping you with the elderly.”
“For
I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than
burnt offerings”. (Hosea 6:6). The prophet Micah asked, "What does
the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk
humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
Are we excited when we wake up every morning? Do we start
our day with an engaging vocation? For the religious sister, it was going for
Mass. For Mother Superior, it was the comfort of those entrusted to her. For
the young, wanting to conquer the world, it could be an early morning jog or
hitting the gym to be primed and sweaty. For others, the young ready for school
- preparing breakfast and their lunchbox - and rushing them to the school bus
or dropping them off at school.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows
it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a
lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to
death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun
comes up, you’d better be running.
Yes, some wake up and wonder if
they will survive the day. And that is sad. Just as sad is to wake up to: “Is
not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Mt 6:25) What do
you wake up to every morning? Are you charged up about the day? Do you have
things to do? Or do you wake up and say, ‘What do I do today?
There is a Malayalam movie in
which the megastar Mohanlal, or Lal sir, reminisces, “If only I could get a job,
I can apply for leave”. Those in high
offices in the corporate world or government who want every day to count,
before retiring for the night, run a checklist of what they need to achieve the
next day. Before planning for the next day, they cross out what they achieved
that day (hopefully everything); if not, the leftovers get added to the next
day. It is logical to say that if ‘leftovers’ are overwhelming, then there is
no way to plan for the next day.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus
got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mk
1:35) As believers and followers of Christ, should we not imitate the Master?
Get up early in the morning and find a quiet place to pray? What did Jesus
pray? Did Jesus pray, “Father, what should I achieve this day”, or did
He pray, “Father, what do you want to achieve this day?
What do we do – those who keep checklists - the previous
night? Tally up our to-do list? Or do we do what the Master did: At that time
Jesus answered and said, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,
because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes.” (Mt 11:25).
We the ‘babes’ are blessed with directions on what He would
like us to do the next day. Can you imagine having the gift where God plans the
day for us? Akin to, though a bit facetious: As a regular churchgoer, I open
the dog-eared hymn book to a page and bingo! The choir leader has chosen a hymn
on that page. We (choir master included) are creatures of our habits. Low
entropy seeking. Of course, there are exceptions.
How gracious it would be, like early mornings, at late night
before retiring, we prostrate by our bedside, idolised in Bible story books,
and thank the Father for the day. 9 This happened so
that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one
of those you gave me.” (Jn 18:9). Who did we lose that day? The religious
sister lost the elderly that day. Who did we ignore that day? Did we achieve
what we were rushing out to get done, instead? Did you pause to ask why the day
was a poor show? Did you ask the Father, “What should I achieve this day”
What do we hope to achieve when we go for daily or Sunday
Mass? Do we go to Mass to give attendance, “Lord, I have not forgotten you,
please don’t forget me.” Or to attend to what the Father wants us to achieve
this day? What is our intent in going to Mass? Do we go with petitions? But God
the Father already knows our needs.
25 “Therefore, I tell you, do not
worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body,
what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do
not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can
any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Mt 6:25-27)
21 “Woman,” Jesus
replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the
Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship
what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from
the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true
worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for
they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and
his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The
woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming.
When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then
Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” (John
4:21-26)
We are the Samaritan woman at the bedside, at the Church.
Jesus is saying I am the Messiah. He is speaking to us. “I, the one speaking
to you—I am he.” Abraham tasked his senior servant, Eliezer: “not get a
wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am
living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife
for my son Isaac.” What did Eliezer do when he reached the ‘country’?
12 Then he prayed, “Lord, God of
my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show
kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring,
and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it
be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have
a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be
the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will
know that you have shown kindness to my master.” (Gen 24:12-14)
Let us too do our Master’s bidding, and not our own, by
asking, “Father, what should I achieve this day”?
-
Mathew Anthony
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