As we do every year, my husband and I watched the movie “Groundhog Day” on Groundhog Day, Friday, February 2. The main character, a successful but self-centered weatherman, finds himself living the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over again. In one scene he is sitting at a bar with two working class men lamenting about his current life which features facing the exact same situations and encounters with people day after day. One of the men at the bar sadly responds that that is the way he experiences his life, too; doing the same thing every day with little apparent effect, only to be faced with getting up and doing it all over again. Life can feel that way even when we are not stuck in the same exact day.
The movie made me think about the day-after-day sameness we lived through during the pandemic, not knowing when it would end and knowing we could do nothing to change the course of events. We just had to live through it, hoping and praying, that everything would be okay. Some of us had lots of time on our hands, but after a while, it was hard to know how to use it well. In the movie, the main character is given the gift of time, but it takes him many repeating days to figure that out and to use the gift to become a better person.
The first reading for this weekend comes from Job7:1-4, 6-7. In the passage Job is lamenting:
Is not life on earth ‘a drudgery?’ I have been assigned months of misery. The night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn. My days come to an end without hope. My life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again. And so on.
It is not too hard to imagine what Job was feeling, especially now, when the days can be dark and cold. This is a waiting time of the year for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. We wait for more hours of daylight. We wait for sunshine. We wait for the wind to die down and for dry days when it is possible to be outside. We wait for signs that spring will indeed come once again and help us to shake off the grey and gloomy thoughts of wintertime. And, during the recent ice storm, the feelings of isolation and dreariness experienced during the pandemic returned rather quickly!
The story of Job is the story of a faithful man who refused to relinquish belief in his innocence, or in the goodness of God despite the overwhelming tragedies of his life. It is a parable of course, a story told to help the rest of us whose troubles rarely rise to the level of distress that Job knew, although there are times when we can and do, wholeheartedly claim the sentiment of Job’s words: Living is hard. Life is fleeting. Even the innocent suffer. Suffering is not a punishment but part of the experience of being alive.
Job does not succumb to the ultimate despair. He continues to believe that God is good and that somehow, in spite of his sorrows, he must go on living for his appointed time. How does he do it?
In the Gospel reading from Mark 1:29-39, we hear of the intensity of the days that Jesus experienced as he set out to change the world through healing, exorcisms, and the creation of enlightened communities. In one 24-hour day Jesus moves from public ministry at the synagogue to the home of a friend hoping to withdraw for a while only to be discovered by the crowds, before going to the wilderness where he is tracked down by his friends. In the midst of his work Jesus rose early, before dawn, and went off by himself to pray. The disciples did not yet grasp the importance of what Jesus was doing. They followed after him, found him at prayer and called him back into the fray. “Everyone is looking for you,” they said. In other words, why are you out here by yourself when there is so much work to be done? What Jesus knew, and his disciples had yet to discover, was that his ‘work’ depended on his having time to commune with God.
In Mark’s Gospel there are not many references to prayer, but this is one of them. Jesus carves out time to pray by rising early in the morning despite a long day and a late night. He simply cannot keep on going without the connection he has to God.
Ched Myers in his book Who Will Roll Away the Stone, describes one function of prayer as the need to be ‘dis-illusioned’, that is, to let go of any illusions of control or privilege or uniqueness, in order to become grounded in who we are and the layers of history and culture that have shaped us, and our dependence on God, who is the source of life. This type of prayer is contemplative, listening rather than petitioning, and requires a degree of humility. The disciples, like the crowds around Jesus, wanted Jesus to give them what they needed when they believed they needed it. Jesus knew that he needed a close connection with God in order to give anything of himself. In the same way, all who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who labor for justice, and work tirelessly for others in our society today, need a well-developed prayer life that connects them with the source of spiritual strength. Prayer is essential. Without it, there is burnout and disillusionment.
There has been a resurgence of contemplative or listening prayer in our time, but on an individual basis, prayer takes time and requires a willingness to practice. Early in the morning, or late at night, when obligations have not yet begun or have already concluded, there might be moments when regular prayer time can be scheduled. I know that many people prefer the regularity of scheduling a set time for prayer. I am not good at this kind of regularity, and I suspect there might be others as well. I pray best when I am working outside in the garden or doing yard work. My hands are busy, and my mind is freed up. Alternatively, I find long walks a wonderful time for prayer. Unfortunately, I struggle to find the right place or time during prolonged periods of wet, dark, cold, and gloomy weather. Winter can be hard on my prayer life.
Job maintained his belief in God throughout his many trials. We are called to maintain our belief in a good and gracious God throughout the difficulties of our lives as well. Jesus took time to pray. We who are his followers are expected to do the same. Prayer keeps us from burning out trying to change the world, and from living with the illusion that we are not part of the world that needs to change.
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