Distractions, Distractions

January 31, 2009

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Cell phones, blackberries, Bluetooth, laptops, desktops, Wii, Playstation, Dish Network, Comcast, DVDs, CDs, surround sound, home theater, Harry Potter, recession, layoffs, teenagers, babies, PDAs, newspapers, internet, talk radio, movies, books, magazines, RSS, seminars, speeches, presentations, gossip, sermons, school, classes, dances, iPods, cars, health insurance, girlfriends, boyfriends, tests, promotions, advertising, Wal Mart, traffic, stoplights, meetings, committees, billboards, grandparents, parents, sickness, weddings, funerals, piano lessons, police cars, airplanes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, Zion National Park, deep powder, new dresses, old shoes, cats and dogs, diapers, and the woman in front of you in line’s really hideous outfit.

St. Paul didn’t know nothin’ bout distractions.

I should like you to be free from all anxieties, he says. Are you serious? How is this possible? How can we focus on the things of God when we are beset by the millions of distractions that attack us daily? All of which cause us anxiety. And anxieties build upon one another, until it seems like that’s all our lives are. What Paul is asking is unrealistic.

I spent last weekend on retreat at the Holy Trinity monastery in Huntsville, where the monks spend their lives in contemplation, prayer and simple work. Their needs are simple and their lives seem peaceful. And yet, there is anxiety there also, as their numbers dwindle and they age, and their future in Utah is uncertain. I went there on a prayer retreat, hoping to spend some time in quiet, away from all the distractions. And even with three days of focused time, I still was distracted. It’s tough not to be. You can’t just up and leave the world behind, even for a short while.

The monastery system sprang up in the late third, early fourth century as a response to the distractions of the age. People would go off into the wilderness to be alone to contemplate, pray, and live simply, focusing on pleasing God without distraction. But not everyone can do this. Most of us have to live in the busy world, and you know, we like having our spouses and families around. They’re not bad things, but they can complicate our lives a bit. But then, whose life isn’t complicated?

Every vocation in life has its inherent anxieties. How can we best handle those anxieties when they spring up? We can take the distractions of our everyday lives and turn them into God moments? We can make the distractions trigger points to focusing on the things of God.

If you are about pleasing the Lord, as Paul says, then what pleases Him? God wants only two things: love Him and love your neighbor. We cannot love God in a vacuum. If you retire to the mountains to live by yourself with no contact with another human being, is that truly loving God? Jesus said that we would not be judged on how much we know or how many pius acts we perform. We will be judged on how we treat one another, how we treat the least of our brothers. That means we best love God by loving our neighbor in our everyday lives. And those lives are filled with distractions. Face it, our neighbors can be a real pain in the neck sometimes, and they get in the way of all the really important stuff we need to do, don’t they?

Why do being single minded in the service of God and being anxious about the needs of our spouses and families have to be mutually exclusive? If you are single minded in serving God, then you will automatically be looking out for the needs of those around you. You cannot do otherwise. You cannot love God without loving your neighbor and you cannot love your neighbor without first loving God.

It all begins with prayer. The monks have it right in that they literally pray always and everywhere. Not only do they gather together several times a day to pray, they offer their very work up as prayer. They live their entire lives focused on the things of God, knowing that if they do the things of the world will take care of themselves. Because Jesus said to seek first the Kingdom of God, and all its righteousness, and everything else will be given to you besides.

Do you begin your day with prayer? I mean actually sitting down for a few minutes every day to start your day by saying good morning to God? Do you use the many distractions of your day to trigger a prayer moment? When the baby wakes up from her nap earlier than you’d like, do you thank God for the wonderful gift he has given you in her? When you’re stuck in traffic, do you say a little prayer of praise to God just for being God, since you’ve got nothing better to do at that moment? When you spend time with your mother or father who’s suffering from dementia, do you take a second to ask God to grant them a life without suffering and a peaceful death. Do you end your day with prayer, just lying in bed reflecting on your day and how you lived it? Do you then take a moment to thank God for the gift of that day, even if everything went wrong in it? Do you resolve to do better tomorrow, to learn from your mistakes?

I was talking with a friend of mine last week about the lack of priests to serve the ever growing number of Catholics in the United States, and she said we’d get more priests it they were allowed to have more of a life. You know, like we do. And I said that priests have a life, and to hear most of them talk, they are very happy with the lives they’ve chosen. What’s wrong with a priest’s life? Paul says that unattached people can better serve the Lord. My friend said that you need all the distractions of the secular or married life in order to be happy or relevant to God’s people. Which is it?

Why does it have to be either/or? I don’t think there is one preferred way to please God. We are all unique, and God created us all that way. He is pleased with us no matter what, just because he loves us. He created us to love us. Sometimes we lose sight of Him, but I think that deep down we all want to please God. And God knows we do. We just have to be distracted from our busy lives every once in awhile and maybe just…give Him a call.