“Reclinare: Leaning Back and Resting in the Arms of God” - 07.17.22 (16th Sunday OT- C)

“Reclinare: Leaning Back and Resting in the Arms of God”

By: Fr. David Schmidt 

Regina Coeli Parish - St. John Neumann Church - Franklin Park, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071722.cfm

In our culture we put such a high value on work, activity, efficiency, and productivity. Work is good, not only is it good, it is also holy. However, if we overemphasize our work or activity then it leads to problems. One of the issues that it causes is that it causes us to devalue prayer and contemplation. We begin to slowly push prayer to the side in favor of our work. We have a tendency to say, “Oh I’m really busy. I don’t have time to pray.”

This is a lie that has crept into many of our hearts. We become so worried about all of our activities and work that we have deceived ourselves into thinking that we don’t have time to pray. We place more importance on getting these activities and work done over spending time with the Lord in prayer.

In today’s Gospel with Martha and Mary, the Lord is showing us that there is one thing that is absolutely necessary, and that’s prayer. To sit at the feet of Jesus and spend time with Him as Mary did in today’s Gospel. This is why he told Martha, who was complaining about Mary not helping her, that Mary has chosen the better part.

Because of this, sitting at the feet of Jesus in prayer must be our priority and focus every day. Prayer is the one thing necessary in life. It is our prayer that fuels our active life. Not the other way around. We need to put more value on our prayer lives than on our activities. This again is tough because of the culture that we live in that puts such a great value on being busy and productive. It can then be tempting to push prayer off in favor of doing all these various things we have to do. It takes a real effort to take even just a few moments and be quiet with the Lord in prayer.

The key factor in learning to stop what we are doing and spend time with the Lord in prayer- is trust. Trust that if I make time for the Lord each day that He will help take care of all of my worries and needs. Jesus doesn’t completely dismiss Martha’s anxieties and worries as unimportant. He knows that we have many genuine worries and anxieties in our lives. Jesus knows all the anxieties and worries of our hearts, and He desires to bring us His peace in these areas of our hearts. He is able to bring us His peace when we choose the better part as Mary did.

The key spiritual position that we are striving for in our lives to build this trust with God is called ‘reclinare’ which is Latin for “to lean back, to rest in.” A religious sister by the name of Mother Mary Francis, who was an Abbess for the Poor Clare’s religious order here in the US for over 40 years before dying in 2006, and was the author of many books, plays, and poetry on the faith, talks about this rest that we desire, and how true rest doesn’t come without true peace. We attain this peace and rest by learning to lean back into the arms of God (Francis, 92-93).

Mother Mary Francis says that leaning back into the arms of God gives us first safety and security which then flows into trust, this type of trust that all will be well (Francis, 93-94). This is what we desire in our lives, an assurance that all will be well. That all will be well with all the anxieties and worries of our hearts. God is calling us to reclinare, to lean back into His arms. The more we get into a habit of leaning back into the arms of God, the more faith and trust begins to grow in our hearts that all will be well, and that He will take care of us (Francis, 94).

When we lack trust that God will take care of our worries and anxieties then we try to do it all on our own. We put everything into our own hands, and we think that if we stop for even one second to pray or rest that everything is going to fall apart. When we rest in God’s arms, we put ourselves in a position of complete trust in Him like a little child who trusts their parents to take care of them. When we rest, we take things out of our own hands, and we put them into God’s hands. It is only when we do this, do amazing things begin to occur.

To clarify, I am not saying that we need to neglect our work and be purely passive and just sit back and wait for God to act. The active and contemplative play off one another. God invites us into His arms to rest, so that He can give us the strength to go back out and do what He is calling us to do. It’s a continual process of leaning back into the arms of God and resting in Him, and then Him sending us back out. If we don’t allow ourselves to lean back, and rest in the arms of God each day in prayer, then our hearts will never be at peace. We might finish what we need to do, but our hearts will be restless. When we rest in God’s arms, there will still be many worries of our hearts, but God will give us His peace and assurance that He will take care of us.

Today, God is simply telling us to focus on the one thing necessary, and that’s Him. God is in control. He will take care of everything. He knows all our needs and desires. He is our good Father who takes care of His children.

What we will discover is that when we recline and lean back into the arms of God, He places our head on His chest, so that we can hear His heart beating with love for us. With each beat of His heart we hear Him speaking into the depths of our own heart, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” It is in encountering this love and hearing Him say ‘I love you’ in the depths of our heart that brings us the peace and rest that we desire and yearn for, and it is in encountering this love in our prayer that enables us to go out and do all that He is asking us to do in our lives. Knowing that He is with us and that we can trust Him in taking care of all the needs and worries of our hearts.

Sources:

-Francis, Mother Mary. My Beloved Is Mine and I Am His: Meditations on the    Brideship of a Woman Religious. Roswell, New Mexico: Community of  Poor Clares of New Mexico, Inc., 2011.

-More information on Mother Mary Francis, her spiritual writings, and the Poor Clare’s can be found on the Poor Clare’s website - https://poorclares-roswell.org/biography