We live in an increasingly busy world. We are sold products that offer more convenient solutions to things that were not even that inconvenient in the first place. We work and rush around to such a great extent that many people find it difficult to stop and truly rest when their schedule does clear up. Despite all the time saving devices that we have in the modern world, people seem to be having an increasingly difficult time enjoying true leisure. We fear silence and stillness, and so we fill up even our free time with activities and plans. In today’s Gospel, we hear the Lord invite the apostles to “Come away to a deserted place and rest a while.” Although the apostles did not end up finding the time to rest because of the crowd pressing upon them, the Lord makes this same invitation to us every week. On each Sunday, we are asked to “Come and rest a while.”
In another part of the Gospels, Our Lord declares to the Pharisees that “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Translated into modern language, Jesus is telling the religious elite of their time that the Sabbath rest was not commanded because God needed our worship, but because we needed worship. The Sunday obligation is aimed at our good. Perhaps you may remember that the sabbath was instituted on Mt. Sinai after the Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt where they were forced to work long hours every day without any break. They desired to go out into the desert to worship their God, but Pharaoh would not allow such a thing. God set them free from slavery but also set them free for worship. They were free to take one day a week to refocus their lives on their God. We are invited to do the same, not out of a begrudging obligation, but understanding that people who center their lives on the Sunday rest become more fully alive. We as humans need this break.
The existence of a weekend is largely the effect of Judaism and Christianity. Jews take Saturday off and Christians take Sunday off. Without religion, there would be no reason for any of us to stop working. All our days would blur into one, and our lives would very quickly turn into just one thing after another. Despite this dedicated space for rest and leisure, many of us still find ourselves busy on the weekends, or perhaps even busier on the weekends. Various sports and activities, parties and hobbies, and perhaps a little overtime work all add up to kill any sense of leisure. Each Sunday, Jesus invites us to put all else aside in order to come away and rest with Him. This is not just a physical rest, but a spiritual rest as well. If this rest is done properly, then we will be able to return to our work on Monday truly rejuvenated.
This will look different for each of us. For some, maybe watching sports is rejuvenating, for others perhaps going for walks does the same. Whatever the activity is, I invite you to discover what truly brings rest to your soul. No matter how you choose to spend your time of rest, be sure to focus it around the Sunday experience of the Mass. In the Mass, we gather as His People to give Him thanks and praise for His many blessings, and we ask for aid in our upcoming endeavors. Take Jesus with you into your leisure. If you go fishing, fish with Jesus. If you read a book, read it with Jesus. If you take a nap, invite Jesus into that time. We will find that the more we invite Christ into our leisure, the more rejuvenating it will become, such that we will not simply long for an end to work, but we will long for a specially dedicated time to relax and rest with Christ.
In Christ,
Colm Larkin