Homily for Wednesday of 1st Week in Ordinary Time Cycle II
Theme: Prayer And Work.
By: Rev Fr Gerald Musa
Homily for Wednesday January 12 2022
St. Augustine must have drawn inspiration from the life of Jesus when he said: “Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you.”Jesus combined a deep prayer life with an active ministry of teaching and healing. After healing many who were sick, and driving away demons, he went off to a deserted place where he prayed (Mark 1:34-35). His life gives us an example of how to create a healthy balance between work and prayer life, and between spiritual exercises and physical work. Ideally, there should be no quarrel between daily activities and spiritual life – both should go hand in hand. Sometimes we get trapped in work addiction without having time to pray and at other times we find ourselves so obsessed with prayer and not giving time for work. These are unhealthy extremes. Wise people rightly say, “If you are too busy to pray, you are busier than God wants you to be.” A person who works and prays “is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3). Like Jesus, we need to learn to reconnect with God and to renew our energy even with our tight daily schedules. Can we take a second look at our daily schedule and see how to create a better balance between work and worship?
Mark 1:29-39 Wednesday, 1st Week of the Year.