I’ve been digging around for a few days in an area of research that is all new to me. I’m studying the life and writings of Gregory the Great. He was pope during the years 590-604. It was the twilight of the Roman Empire, a time of great social dislocation and political upheaval. Constant war, and decimating plagues, famine and floods added to the misery of his era.
Gregory is called “great” because of his leadership of the church in a time of high anxiety and uncertainty. He brought spiritual depth to his oversight of the church, and his guidance to pastors is still being read today.
Of note to me is Gregory’s effort to reconcile the desire for spiritual reflection and prayer with the demands of daily duties. Gregory had been called into service as pope from the monastery. His preferred way of life was the quiet of contemplation, and he was very reluctant to give it up for the administrative rigors of the papacy.
Gregory wrote extensively of the tension between the active life and the contemplative. In his biography of Gregory, R. A Markus writes, “Service and contemplation [Gregory believed] complement each other in the pastoral life. The preacher always needs to return to the ‘fire of contemplation’ to renew his ardor, if his work of love is not to cool. The life of a faithful minister is a constant returning from action to contemplation and from contemplation to action.” (p. 24)
Surveys of today’s pastors show how much they struggle to find time for contemplation. Gregory offers a word of realism as he reflects on the story of Mary and Martha.
“If those of us who serve our brothers cannot sit quietly at our Redeemer’s feet, we should nevertheless stand by Him for a little while. We do this well if we glimpse Him as we pass to and fro while serving. And what does it mean to glimpse the Lord in passing, but to direct to Him the intention of our hearts in all our good works? For we pass to and fro as we run around serving Him, ministering to His members. And passing we glimpse the Lord if in all we do, we contemplate Him who is present to us when we try to please Him.”
Maybe that’s the best we can hope for, as we “pass to and fro while serving:” to “glimpse the Lord in passing.” And I think what Gregory means by “directing to Him the intention of our hearts in all our good works,” is something like the prayer, “Lord, as I hurry from task to task, this is my service to you, my offering, my prayer; please receive it in love.”
It still seems unbalanced, and Gregory would probably agree. But if in our ministry the Lord should grant us a glimpse of himself, not only would that give us extraordinary encouragement; it would undoubtedly draw us toward more frequently to prayer.
Posted in Pastor
