I read a very interesting story about Mother Teresa. When her work was only just beginning, there were just a few of them and they found that there were huge demands being made on them because there were so many people who needed help. There were so many old people dying, so many sick and so many abandoned children. What were they to do? They were feeling overwhelmed. So they decided to ask the Lord, in prayer, what they should do. The answer they got surprised them. The Lord told them that he wanted them to give an extra hour of their time, on top of their ordinary prayer time, to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. That is, an extra hour to him and an hour less to work. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but they believed that this was what the Lord was telling them, so they began to do this and soon they found that many more people began to join their order and then they were able to do much more of the work even than before. Mother Teresa attributed the success of her order to being faithful to this holy hour every day and she realized that this was an important lesson that God was teaching them. Put him first and everything else will follow. God will never be outdone in generosity. If we give him our time first, everything else will fall into place.
This doesn’t just apply to people in religious life. It applies to us all. We are living in a very fast and very busy world. There is always so much to do and so many places to go. This is also one of the tricks of the Devil. He keeps us very busy so that we have no time to stop and listen to the Lord speaking to us in our hearts. And then we wonder why we seem to be so removed from God. Why isn’t He speaking to us and helping us? He is, but we are often not listening. If we don’t listen to him, how are we going to know what He is saying to us.
There was a priests’ retreat a few years ago and they asked a Buddhist monk, a woman, to direct it. So she agreed. The first day of the retreat she came in and went up to the place where she was to speak from. She sat down and remained in complete silence for half an hour. The priests weren’t too impressed, but since it was the first talk they said nothing.
The second day she came in and sat down and began to meditate again. After half an hour of silence, she got up and left again. Now the priests were a little more agitated, and a few of them complained to one another, but they decided to give her one more chance.
The third day she came in and sat down and remained in silence again. By the end of the session, several of the priests decided to approach her. So they did and they said that this was getting out of hand and why wasn’t she speaking etc. So she finally spoke to them and said, ‘So far all you have been doing is talking to each other and complaining about me and wondering why I am not speaking. Yet you say that you’re on retreat. How do you expect to listen to God if you can’t even learn to be silent.’
There is a lot we can learn from this. We demand that God help us and sort out all kinds of situations and give us the answers to different problems and yet we are slow to sit down and listen to him, to adore him, to love him and be healed by him. We expect him to sort everything out for us while we are running around enjoying ourselves. We can be like a crowd of spoilt children. Once we begin to learn to listen to the Lord, we will find that He is continually inviting us to spend time in his presence. This is where real healing takes place. This is where we learn to put things in the right order in our life.
Everywhere that Jesus went He healed people. Yet He didn’t seek people out to heal them. His primary mission was to sacrifice himself for us, but also to teach us about God and about our life and why we are here. In various places where the people wanted him to stay longer and heal more people, He said that He must move on to preach in other towns, because ‘That is why I came.’ (Mk 1:38). Physically healing people was secondary. Feeding people spiritually was primary. Spiritual healing is far more important than physical healing, because with spiritual healing we have inner strength and purpose, which will help us through times of physical sickness and struggle. When people don’t have spiritual strength, they don’t know where to turn to and they often lose hope, something that we are seeing at lot at this time.
Should we pray to God for physical healing? Of course. The Lord wants us to be healed and the place to start is with Jesus. Everyone who was brought to Jesus for healing was healed, as far as we know. So what does this tell us? It tells us that if we want to be healed, physically and spiritually, Jesus is the one to go to. But how can we get to Jesus? Jesus is here in the Holy Eucharist. We can come and rest in his presence and we can receive him every day if we choose.
People often ask me what is the best way they can help the parish and I always tell them to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. People are not usually convinced that that is the best way that they can help the parish. We want to ‘do’ something. But if we want things to be done, we must start by turning to the One who does all things. The more of my time I give to him, the more things He will do through me. This is something the Lord keeps teaching me, to give him my primary time each day. The more time I give to prayer, the more things happen in the parish. Not because I do more things, but the Lord just makes things happen. He is constantly reminding me to put him first and He will take care of everything else.
If we depend on ourselves only to get things done, we are depending on one limited human being. But if we give ourselves to the Lord, then we are depending on the One who created everything. That’s a big difference.
Every morning we have adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from about 7.15 to the 9am mass. On Fridays we have adoration until 1pm. Yet it always disappoints me how few people come to spend time at Jesus’ feet, worshipping and adoring him. If you are praying for physical healing, start by coming to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. If you need direction and inner strength, start by coming to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. If you were allowed to come before the throne of God in heaven to ask for your needs, would you hesitate? Of course not. We would all jump at the chance. And yet God gives us that opportunity every day. We don’t have to go up to heaven to reach him. He is here with us and He wants us to come to him and to receive him often. What an extraordinary thing that Jesus makes himself available to us every day. Not only can we come into his presence, but we can receive him into our bodies.
When you are praying for healing, start by coming to Jesus in the Eucharist. If you are praying for guidance, start by coming to Jesus in the Eucharist. If you are overwhelmed by work, or family situations, start by coming before Jesus in the Eucharist. Remember Mother Theresa’s experience. They gave an extra hour of their day to God and things started to happen. If you are praying for inner strength and you turn to the Lord, He is guiding you. Jesus tells us again and again that He always answers our prayers; always. ‘Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks, always receives.’ (Mat 7:7-8). We don’t always recognize the answer we are being given, or it may not be the answer we want to hear, but we are always answered.
Often when we ask the Lord to help us in a difficult situation, we want Him to fix it. But often what the Lord shows us is what we need to do, which is not always what we want to face. Sometimes God will show us that we need to confront someone, or change our life situation, but God always answers us.
So often when I am busy, I am tempted to skip part of my prayer time in order to get more done. Yet the Lord keeps showing me, if I give him my time first, then those things always get done and more besides. The temptation is to turn to prayer once we have time, but the Lord tells us to put him first and then He will make sure everything gets done.
‘The one who asks, always receives. The one who seeks always finds and the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him’ (Mt 7:8).
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