Homily: Action and Prayer

This Gospel is traditionally about the balance between contemplation and social action. You need both in a life of faith, however, they are priorities.

So many people will teach the contemplative way of Mary in coming to know Christ. Others will focus on the active way Martha follows Christ. Jesus recognizes the contemplative way is important but let’s face it, if he wants to have lunch, he will not stop Martha from her actions.

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So, what is going on here? Martha is the old sister and, therefore, she is taking on her responsibility of caring for the house. Mary being the younger does not engage in similar preparation but rather in sitting and absorbing the words of the guest. Jesus points out that of the two things to choose, Mary is doing the better. There are another one of his parables there. Unless you become like a child you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven

So we have the call to balance prayer and work.

Let me begin by reminding you of the source of all evil in the world according to the saints. Regardless of the time, they will tell you it is Catholics not doing God’s will.

So you have, should we pray or should we work. The answer we must do both, prayer and work. However, We should pray first and let our prayer guide our work and then let our workflow from our prayer. We need both. If we focus just on prayer then we fall into James’ admonition that faith without works is dead. That is the line that many in the secular community consider obnoxious. When total disaster happens people say: “I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.” Many secular people will just say don’t waste your time and tell you to get lost.

We can pray, but if we are called to action let our prayer guide our action. That way our action will be more effective for the will of God will guide it.

Our society is filled with people who are ready to act but they do not pray and so they act in ways that cause more confusion which is not their intention. For some, it is their intention. Those who are trying to enact a Marxist revolution in this country and who have always been there will complain about everything. If you serve them cake and ice cream they will be like Judas in the Gospel complaining about how the money could be put to better use. If you put the money to better use they will complain about not getting cake and ice cream. It is the tactic common to these revolutionaries.

However, their focus is on the ends justify the means mentality that seeks to do whatever they can to confuse create conflict and through that revolution. Marxism is rooted in conflict theory. Change comes through conflict.

Their goals are not rooted in divine wisdom so they will create confusion. Why, because they do not tap into the world of prayer and seek to act without guidance from divine wisdom.

The opposite is also true in which some pray and do not act. They will say special prayers for you but will do nothing for you. James refers to these people when he condemns those who say to someone in need: “Goodbye, good luck, keep warm and well fed.”

They pray but they don’t act.

We need a good balance of prayer and acting so that we do God’s will. It is so we see the right vision of how to do the right thing knowing the right thing may be the radical thing.

I have been giving some thought lately to what it means to act in our faith. The answer is simple Jesus says to treat others as you would want to be treated and to love God above all things.

We live in a world where people have rejected faith and embraced science. As you know Catholicism embraces faith and science. What is the difference between the two? The person of faith will act to the far limits of the commandments to love, we can only do that if we are people of prayer. We may act in ways that are socially unacceptable but we must do it. He will also embrace science.

Let’s look at this. During the pandemic what was the mantra: Follow the science. There is no love in science and this is why it created so much confusion. What would be the better response? Work with the science. Work together to find a solution without creating a situation where the cure was worse than the disease. You begin through prayer.

I wrote a similar story for a very conservative newspaper which is now defunct. A man who ran the Archdiocese of Boston’s ministry to those with AIDS told me that parents would visit their adult son in the hospital to learn he was dying and discover for the first time about the lifestyle that led him to get AIDS. They would immediately leave the room and never come back. The man I interviewed and wrote about said he would call the family three weeks later and say: “Your son is dead.”They would respond “Thank you very much,” then hang up the phone.

He added that they would go to Church on Sunday.

Prayer without works.

I once got a call to the hospital. A young man in his twenties overdosed on cocaine and was braindead. I was called to the hospital room to give last rites the whole family was there praying for their son despite the reason for being there and praying for his salvation, why? Because he was still their son, brother, cousin, etc and they still wanted to pray for God’s mercy. Prayer and works.

We need both prayer and work and our prayer may lead us well beyond our comfort zone into service to others. We have to discern what we can and should do and do it and what may be beyond us and leave it for someone else but we must be people of prayer to do it.

If you are involved in social justice which we should be, be people of prayer so that our action will be guided by the spirit. If you are a person who focuses on prayer be careful not to be so rooted in prayer that you do no work. Prayer without works is dead. We need both but priority must be given to prayer so that our works are guided by the Holy Spirit.

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