2025 Arkansas Catholic Men's Conference

Published: February 8, 2025

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at Christ the King Church in Little Rock on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. It is based on the readings for Saturday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle I.

Bishop Taylor

I’m sure you’ve all seen the Energizer Bunny, the pink bunny that keeps on beating his drum long after all the other batteries have lost their charge. What they don’t say is that any battery will fail eventually unless it is recharged.

All the time the bunny is running the battery inside discharges its stored energy and gradually becomes weaker. You can’t tell it at first because the energy output remains the same, but put it in a battery tester and you’ll see how much charge it has left. Eventually, you’ll have to shut that bunny down and recharge its battery.

In today’s Gospel Jesus realizes that he and his disciples need to get their batteries recharged.

By the time we reach the sixth chapter in Mark’s Gospel, peace and quiet had already become a rare commodity: “People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.” So Jesus invites them to go with him across the lake “to a deserted place and rest awhile.” Recharge their batteries.

But people figured out where they were going and were waiting for them when they arrived on the other shore. Despite his fatigue, Jesus took pity on them and taught them many things. So much for getting a little rest. Notice, however, that Jesus recognizes how important it is to step back from the activity of daily life and rest a bit, get recharged physically and spiritually. Spend time in quiet prayer. Spend time with friends.

One of the biggest mistakes many people make — I as much as anyone — is to give ourselves over to a life of ceaseless activity. Many people feel compelled to do something productive every waking hour, ignoring our need for decent meals and a good night’s rest, ignoring our need for quiet time alone with God and for rest and relaxation with family and friends.

This is an easy trap to fall into. I remember as a young priest being struck with how many needs there are out there and so I’d skip days off, skimp on sleep, not really take time for meals. I did lots of daily prayer activity: Masses and quiet prayer time every day, but I had a hard time getting quiet and feeling focused. Homily preparation began to feel like doing a term paper every week — work not prayer. I knew this wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

Jesus may have kept that kind of pace, but he’s the Savior, not me. And anyway, I’m in this for the long haul — Jesus didn’t have to worry about burnout; his public ministry lasted only three years.

I realized something had to change. So what I did was gradually increase my silent prayer from 20 minutes (which I had done since 11th grade) to an hour each day, adding five minutes each month until I got up to an hour. This daily holy hour got me back on the right track, and I have continued to have a daily holy hour ever since. It’s like recharging my batteries every morning.

What is most amazing is that the more time I spend resting with the Lord, the less time it takes to do everything else. It’s almost like stopping the clock for an hour or having a 25-hour day; the hour “wasted” with the Lord is not an hour lost. Everything that needs to get done still gets done. I’m much better focused, use my time better the rest of the day.

Is this an issue in your life too? Do you often feel like the Energizer Bunny? We are very achievement-oriented, and I know some of you have lots of irons in the fire. Perhaps Jesus is inviting you to chill a little, “to come with him to an out of the way place and rest a little” — to recharge your batteries, a daily holy hour, or maybe initially a daily “holy 10 minutes.”

Every one of us ought to be able to set aside 10 minutes a day for prayer. And then you might try adding five more minutes each month until you work up to an hour. If you’re in this for the long haul, you’ll need to shut that bunny down daily and recharge the batteries.