THE gospel story of the sisters
Martha and Mary (cfr Lk
10-38-42) is classic for its great lesson in priorities. Both did good
things, but one got her priorities wrong.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many
things,” Christ said. “Only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen
the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it.”
It’s a lesson that, despite its age, continues to be some
kind of breaking news to many people even up to now. Even many priests
can fall victim to this predicament. And I can readily understand why.
Given their—our—peculiar situation, we are quite prone to this
problem.
We do lots of things from way early in the morning to way
late at night. Twenty-four hours don’t seem to be enough for the day.
Aside from the daily assignments and routine, we are at the beck and
call of everyone—for just about any request like confessions, visits
and anointing of the sick, Masses at wakes, blessings, etc.
That’s part of the reason why priests are asked to lead
celibate lives. It is to make us most available for anyone and for
anything. We ought to be ready to minister as requested and to go
anywhere.
And so, with this very active lifestyle, the possibility
is quite high for us to fall into activism. That’s when we can start
neglecting the most basic things like prayer, care and nourishment of
our spiritual life. Even our physical health can suffer.
What’s worse is when we unconsciously get into the fix of
some obsessions. That’s when we get into a loop, doing our own thing
and not God’s, generating energy from our own self and not from God.
This can only end up in disaster.
Because of these obsessions, many priests can get into
unrestrained social action, or get immersed into partisan politics, or
to be involved in other temporal affairs not meant for us as in making
business, etc.
Another sign of this grip of obsession on us is when we
start losing the sense of team work, when we prefer to do things
alone, and not to be told anything by anyone, nor to report and
account things to someone. We seem to confine ourselves to a certain
area restricted to others. It has nothing to do with creativity and
originality.
Cases like this are getting rampant, sad to say. They all
point to a lack of priority in our attitudes and actuations. We need
to see to it that we don’t get lost in the flow of events during the
day, and to avoid getting tied down by the subtle threads of
self-affirmation.
Thus, a certain detachment in our activities is advisable.
It’s the detachment that’s meant to prevent us from being swallowed up
by earthly things, thereby losing our contact with God. It’s good that
from time to time during the day, we check ourselves if this
detachment is still working or we are now sinking slowly into our own
world.
When the interest for prayer and other spiritual
activities like making sacrifices, going to the sacraments, developing
and exercising the virtues wanes, it’s proof that something is wrong
and some rectification is needed. Most likely, there is lack of
priority involved.
When we experience the surge of irritability, when being
nice and patient becomes very hard to do or when we become vulnerable
to envy and resentments—these can be symptoms we are losing the proper
priorities.
For sure, we have to make use of time, since there simply
are just too many things to be done. In the life of Christ with his
disciples, there are many references of how busy they were in their
preaching such that they hardly had time to eat.
This will always be the situation of those who wish to
follow Christ closely. Heroism up to being squeezed like a lemon or
even up to death is to be expected.
Yet, priorities should be observed, and there will be
times when we have to say “no” to certain things even though they too
are good. And we just have to say “no.”
Again, these are easier said than done. To be prudent in
making the right judgments, when to say “yes” and when to say “no”, is
most tricky. It would be good that everyone avails himself of a
spiritual director or confidante who can help him.
In the end, this confidante can only be Christ. We need to
be friends of Christ, just as Martha and Mary were of him.
10-38-42) is classic for its great lesson in priorities. Both did good
things, but one got her priorities wrong.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many
things,” Christ said. “Only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen
the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it.”
It’s a lesson that, despite its age, continues to be some
kind of breaking news to many people even up to now. Even many priests
can fall victim to this predicament. And I can readily understand why.
Given their—our—peculiar situation, we are quite prone to this
problem.
We do lots of things from way early in the morning to way
late at night. Twenty-four hours don’t seem to be enough for the day.
Aside from the daily assignments and routine, we are at the beck and
call of everyone—for just about any request like confessions, visits
and anointing of the sick, Masses at wakes, blessings, etc.
That’s part of the reason why priests are asked to lead
celibate lives. It is to make us most available for anyone and for
anything. We ought to be ready to minister as requested and to go
anywhere.
And so, with this very active lifestyle, the possibility
is quite high for us to fall into activism. That’s when we can start
neglecting the most basic things like prayer, care and nourishment of
our spiritual life. Even our physical health can suffer.
What’s worse is when we unconsciously get into the fix of
some obsessions. That’s when we get into a loop, doing our own thing
and not God’s, generating energy from our own self and not from God.
This can only end up in disaster.
Because of these obsessions, many priests can get into
unrestrained social action, or get immersed into partisan politics, or
to be involved in other temporal affairs not meant for us as in making
business, etc.
Another sign of this grip of obsession on us is when we
start losing the sense of team work, when we prefer to do things
alone, and not to be told anything by anyone, nor to report and
account things to someone. We seem to confine ourselves to a certain
area restricted to others. It has nothing to do with creativity and
originality.
Cases like this are getting rampant, sad to say. They all
point to a lack of priority in our attitudes and actuations. We need
to see to it that we don’t get lost in the flow of events during the
day, and to avoid getting tied down by the subtle threads of
self-affirmation.
Thus, a certain detachment in our activities is advisable.
It’s the detachment that’s meant to prevent us from being swallowed up
by earthly things, thereby losing our contact with God. It’s good that
from time to time during the day, we check ourselves if this
detachment is still working or we are now sinking slowly into our own
world.
When the interest for prayer and other spiritual
activities like making sacrifices, going to the sacraments, developing
and exercising the virtues wanes, it’s proof that something is wrong
and some rectification is needed. Most likely, there is lack of
priority involved.
When we experience the surge of irritability, when being
nice and patient becomes very hard to do or when we become vulnerable
to envy and resentments—these can be symptoms we are losing the proper
priorities.
For sure, we have to make use of time, since there simply
are just too many things to be done. In the life of Christ with his
disciples, there are many references of how busy they were in their
preaching such that they hardly had time to eat.
This will always be the situation of those who wish to
follow Christ closely. Heroism up to being squeezed like a lemon or
even up to death is to be expected.
Yet, priorities should be observed, and there will be
times when we have to say “no” to certain things even though they too
are good. And we just have to say “no.”
Again, these are easier said than done. To be prudent in
making the right judgments, when to say “yes” and when to say “no”, is
most tricky. It would be good that everyone avails himself of a
spiritual director or confidante who can help him.
In the end, this confidante can only be Christ. We need to
be friends of Christ, just as Martha and Mary were of him.
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