I remember in my first summer of priesthood, I attended a funeral for a priest in our diocese.  At the funeral luncheon, somehow, I ended up sitting with a table of elderly Notre Dame nuns.  They kindly asked me about my first months of priesthood. What were my joys? What were my struggles? And I mentioned the challenge of living a balanced life. After I mentioned that, they all seemed to laugh. They told me when I found out how to do that to let them know (mind you these nuns were in their 90s).

In the first reading for this Sunday, we hear the story about Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was called by God to offer Isaac up as a holocaust, and Abraham responded to that call. When Abraham was about to offer his son, Isaac, God intervened, and said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy.” God knew how devoted Abraham was to Him and gave him a ram to offer up to God in place of his son.

In our spiritual lives, our hope is to live lives devoted to God—to give everything—to hold nothing back from God. As we live this kind of life, it is important to be open to those moments when God might tell us to stop in the midst of our devotedness.  Perhaps our imbalance in life is due to a lack of listening to God.

St. Francis de Sales speaks to this when he says…“When God created the world He commanded each tree to bear fruit after its kind; and even so He bids Christians—the living trees of His Church—to bring forth fruits of devotion, each one according to his kind and vocation.” This takes prayer.  This takes discernment.  As we pray and discern how God is calling us to hold nothing back and to follow Him, continue to be open to Him along the way, because He may let us know we are doing too much.  Listen to Him, respond to Him, and you may begin to start walking a balanced life.

Peace and blessings on your Lenten journey,
Fr. Jeremy

P.S. Praise and Worship is a great time to hold nothing back—to truly give Jesus our voices and surrender our lives to Him.  Come this Friday at 7:30 after Stations of the Cross to praise God and listen to the Holy Spirit speak through Fr. Bearer.