Spend Some Time With Jesus

The Gospel this Sunday tells us the story of Martha and Mary. Martha is "burdened with much serving" and is "anxious and worried about many things" whereas Mary just "sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak."
              From our modern pro-productive American perspective, the industrious Martha seems to be more virtuous than the seemingly lazy Mary. In our modern age, we look at busy-ness as a virtue. We brag about it to our friends. When we tell others how busy we are, we expect them to be impressed. We even see this phenomenon in the Church. We think of monks as less valuable than priests because monks don't "do" anything - they just pray.
However, Jesus is not impressed with our packed schedules. He just wants to spend time with us. Do we make the time to sit beside the Lord and listen to Him speak? If we do not, why not? We all feel like we cannot afford the time to pray. However, when we pray, we actually feel like we have more time. And when we feel like we have more time, we become a rare pillar of peace in this chaotic, stressed out, and anxious world. Imagine bragging to your friends, "I am not that busy. I am at peace. My schedule is wide open." This is the perspective of freedom and it comes after we sit at the feet of the Jesus and listen to Him speak. 
 
God bless,
Fr. Scott