Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) Fr Fred Mislang – Divine Word Seminary of Tagaytay
Saturday 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
There is a story called “Teddy.” In the story, young Teddy talks about how hard it is to try to live a spiritual life in today’s world. He says: “I mean it is very hard to meditate and live a spiritual life in America (in Europe or even in Asia, if I may add). People think you’re a freak if you try to. My father thinks I’m a freak, in a way. And my mother—well, she doesn’t think it’s good for me to think about God all the time. She thinks it’s bad for my health.”
Jesus had the same problem with his relatives and close friends. He often misses His meals and lacks the much-needed rest after working so hard all day and well into the night. And this alarmed His relatives and close friends. “Let’s take charge of him,” they said in effect, “before he is permanently damaged,” that is, before He loses His mind completely, if He is not out of His mind already.
The relatives and close friends of Jesus failed miserably in knowing who Jesus really was. They just saw a small, one-sided part of Him—His activity: how He helped so many people the whole day that He often missed His meals and failed to grab some proper rest. They just don’t see Him late in the evening or in the early wee hours of the morning, communing with His Father in prayer.
Jesus perfectly struck a balance between silence and words, withdrawal and involvement, distance and closeness. Till the end of His earthly life, Jesus kept on giving and receiving, healing and suffering, working and praying.
Regardless of what people see and will say about us, let us go on living, patterning our life after Christ, balancing our love for God and for our neighbor, communing with Him and serving our brothers and sisters. That is Christ’s way; that should be ours, too.
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