I was riding home on the Caltrain this past Tuesday after a meeting in San Francisco. It was a blessing to be able to sit, pray a Rosary and then take time to read. I had brought my kindle with me and look through some of the books that I had begun but have let drop off my radar over the past year. So, I opened up the book “Awaiting God” by Simone Weil. A read two of the essays that make up this book. In her essay “Reflections on the Right use of School Studies in View of the Love of God” one of the major themes she spoke about the idea of attention in studies and how this helps to form our lives.

“Although today we seem ignorant to it, the formation of the faculty of attention is the true goal and unique interest of all studies.” (p 21) Simone Weil is reminding us of the underlying premise for learning…not just getting to a solution but to be attentive to the path we are walking. The “Love of God” is a journey, as is all love, to seek a deeper and fuller understanding to the greater good and blessing that occurs in our lives. In our increasingly digital society, where process is overlooked, where the ends will justify the means, we find ourselves awash in ego and selfish behaviors that do not engage us in a learning of the other in our lives.
She lays out an understanding where the interests of the study of all God’s creation is being attentive to what we encounter. Pope Francis in his latest Apostolic Exhortation, “Gaudete et Exsultate” (Rejoice And Be Glad) asks us to remember the details of Jesus’ call to take notice and be attentive to others,

“Let us not forget that Jesus asked his disciples to pay attention to details.
The little detail that wine was running out at a party.
The little detail that one sheep was missing.
The little detail of noticing the widow who offered her two small coins.
The little detail of having spare oil for the lamps, should the bridegroom delay.
The little detail of asking the disciples how many loaves of bread they had.
The little detail of having a fire burning and a fish cooking as he waited for the disciples at daybreak. (GeE #144)

As we read these short tag lines to the Gospel our temptation is to say; “I know that one” and skip to the next and the next and the next…until we come to the end and simply move one without much thought our care. And that happens too often in life…we pass by without looking with attentiveness.
We may one to take one of those small lines, find the Gospel passage (see below) and be attentive in reading. Weil writes, ”Without sensing it, without knowing it, this effort that appeared sterile and fruitless has deposited more light in the soul. The fruit will be found later, in prayer.” (p 22) If we are attentive in this study then the fruits will be found in a greater “knowing” of Jesus Christ. When we know Him, we begin to know ourselves and become attentive to the process rather than just the end. Attention to life points us in a direction towards a greater good. Pope Benedict XVI challenges us to seek this end when he writes, “What this means is that every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed. Yet every generation must also make its own contribution to establishing convincing structures of freedom and of good, which can help the following generation as a guideline for the proper use of human freedom; hence, always within human limits, they provide a certain guarantee also for the future. In other words: good structures help, but of themselves they are not enough. Man can never be redeemed simply from outside.” (Spe Salvi: Saved In Hope #25)
Attention to who we are and what we do must ultimately transform our lives and answer the biggest and most profound questions in our lives. It is the seeking of the greater which permits our heart to be greater, love greater, forgive greater, trust greater suffer greater and endure greater than we are able to do if we are just seeking any answer rather than the answer which is life.

“Even outside of any explicit religious belief, every time a human being accomplishes an effort of attention with the sole desire of becoming more capable of knowing the truth, they acquire a greater aptitude for it even if their effort produces no visible fruit.” (P22-23)

Take the challenge, be attentive…be loved and join together in seeking the only truth that matters…Jesus Christ.

God bless,
Fr. Mark

John 2:1-12 Wedding Feast at Cana
Luke 15:1-7 The Lost Sheep
Luke 21:1-4 The Widow’s Two Mites
Matthew 25:1-13 The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
Mark 6:30-44 The Multiplication of the Loaves
John 21:1-14 Jesus Appears by the Sea