St. Pius X Parish - Aurora, Colorado

Someone very wise has said (or should have said), “A clean desk is the sign of an empty mind.” If you could see the mess on top of my desk, you would know how much I hate paperwork. When I do sit down to do it, I just want to get it done. But what generally happens is…the phone rings…the door bell rings…people drop by…a crisis befalls someone…the world seem to conspire against completing my appointed task. I tend to view all these things as interrupting my work and feel some mild resentment over them. But more deeply, these interruptions are my work. As important as the paper work is, the people work is much more central to my work. I think that is the lesson from today’s Gospel: no matter how important or urgent the task, people with legitimate needs are never an intrusion. As important as it was to get to Jairus’ daughter quickly, Jesus had time to stop to acknowledge the cure of the woman freed from years of illness. Far from being a slow time, summer speeds things up with active and often conflicting schedules and our best laid plans often go awry. In those times perhaps we can remember the invitation of today’s Gospel.