REST THAT RENEWS
It’s a joy for a believer to meet up with Jesus who knows how to understand the deepest needs of the human being. That’s why our soul is filled with joy when we hear the invitation he directed to his disciples: «Come away to some lonely place and rest for a while».
We humans need «to celebrate». And maybe more than ever today. Subjected to an inflexible rhythm of work, slaves of occupations and sometimes exhausting tasks, we need that rest which helps us to be freed from tension, deterioration and fatigue accumulated along the way.
Today’s people have frequently ended up being slaves of productivity. As much in socialist countries as in capitalist ones, the value of life has been reduced practically to production, efficacy and work output. According to H. Cox people today «have bought prosperity at the cost of a dizzy impoverishment in our vital elements». What’s certain is that we all run the risk of forgetting the ultimate value of life and end up drowning in activism, work and production.
Industrial society has made us more industrious, better organized, more efficient; but meanwhile there are many who have the impression that life is sadly slipping away through our fingers. That’s why rest can’t be only the needed «break» in order to replace our depleted energies, or the «escape valve» that frees us from accumulated tensions, only to return with new force to the never ending work.
Rest should help us to regenerate our whole being by discovering new dimensions of our existence. The celebration should remind us that life isn’t just effort and exhausting work. The human being is made also to enjoy, play, rejoice in friendship, pray, give thanks, worship… We mustn’t forget that above all the struggles and rivalries, we are all called here and now to enjoy as brothers and sisters a celebration that will one day be definitive.
We need to learn to «go on vacation» in a different manner. It’s not about being obsessed with «taking it easy» whatever the cost, but to know how to enjoy simply and gratefully our friends, family, nature, silence, play, music, love, beauty, our living together. It’s not about emptying ourselves in the superficiality of a few days running around as crazy people, but of recovering our inner harmony, taking more care of the roots of our life, meeting up with our very selves, enjoying the friendship and love of other people, «enjoying God» through all of creation.
And don’t forget something important. We only have the right to rest and celebration if we wear ourselves out daily in the effort of building a more human and happy society for everyone.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
