QUESTIONS OF FAITH

I have a confession to make. I write this answer on a Monday, two days after my last final exam for the semester. (Yes, that means my exam was on Saturday. Yes, we’re a little crazy here at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.) Finals were hard. I was busy. But I noticed something. The busier I got, the more time I spent on Instagram. Some days I was at my normal fifteen-minute limit. On other days, it was thirty. Sometimes, it was forty-five. How is it that the more stressed I got, the more time I wasted?

The thing is that we fallen human beings tend to grasp at what is easy rather than doing what is effective. There’s nothing wrong with social media in itself, but there are very, very few instances when using it for more than thirty minutes in a day adds value to my life. I feel the difference between those days when I use it for more than fifteen minutes because there are many interesting things from my real friends who I know in person (effective) as opposed to using it as an escape from the busyness of my life (easy). I feel the difference between watching a show or a movie and then moving on with my life in the joy that comes from legitimate entertainment (effective) and watching multiple episodes of a show or a whole movie plus all of the YouTube commentary on it because I’m just trying to soothe my stress (easy). Substitute whatever it is for you: the news, the paper, blogs, books, whatever. Give some serious thought to where you are most often tempted to choose something because it’s easy rather than because it’s effective.

Sometimes, the thing that works is, in fact, easy. Thanks be to God! The idea, “The harder thing is always the holier thing” is not from Jesus; it’s from either the world, the flesh, or the Devil. But if, before I make a decision—especially when I’m busy and/or stressed—I ask myself, “Am I doing this because it’s effective or just because it’s easy?” I find that I usually make better decisions.

But what does all this have to do with prayer? If we’re honest, y’all, we waste a lot of time. Let me be clear: the fifteen minutes I spend on Instagram every day is not a waste of time. But if I spend an extra fifteen minutes like I often did during finals season, it usually is. Whatever you often grasp at for an easy but ineffective fix to your stress is probably like that too— too much of something that’s good in small doses.

Now, what if I had taken those fifteen minutes to sit in my chair, take a deep breath, and talk to Jesus—to tell him how I feel, what I need from Him, and that I love Him? What if, after I did that, I had picked up my Bible? I could’ve said, “I’ll start at Psalm stress. I begin to live just a little bit more in freedom rather than fear. I begin to stop randomly at the Adoration chapel, or the open church for just a few minutes of quiet prayer. Before I was a priest, celebrating Mass every day, I sometimes decided on a whim to head over to Daily Mass and—in a state of grace—receive Jesus in Holy Communion. Encountering Jesus in the Eucharist is the best thing to do when we’re busy. It doesn’t have to be long, but making the effort to go see Him in Adoration, in the Tabernacle, or— the best option—at Daily Mass will transform your life. Guaranteed.

1 and read the Psalms until I’m a little less stressed.” Or I could’ve done the same with one of the Gospels. I might have read three verses or thirty. The point isn’t productivity, but communion with God. What if I had gone for a walk, praying the Rosary as I did so?

I know what would have happened because I know what happens when I actually do those things. I encounter God and my stress at least begins to melt away. I’m still

So, how do I make time for prayer when I’m busy? The answer, my friends, which I give to you and to myself is to stop wasting the time we have and, as a question for us to ask ourselves to perhaps help us on our journey, I propose this one: “Am I doing this because it’s effective, or just because it’s