Come And Rest For A While

Written by Rev. Fr. Orly Mendoza | 15 July 2012

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Green) Cycle B, Year II (July 22, 2012)
Jer 23:1-6/Eph 2:13-18/Mk 6:30-34

Upon the return of Christ’s Apostles from their mission, Jesus invited them to rest in these words: “Come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while” (Mk 6:31b). Rest seems very important in the life of every human person that the inspired author of the creation story in the book of Genesis even depicted God to have rested on the last day after He had created the whole creation in six days. In this creation story, the author would like to teach us that we must separate a day for the Lord and make it holy by glorifying God through our worship of Him and by resting our bodies from its daily activities. The day which we must consecrate for the Lord is Sunday. For this reason, our Catholic Church demands that we make Sunday a holy day by resting ourselves from hard labors, by doing charitable activities and most especially by attending the Holy Eucharist.

From the physiological point of view, rest is definitely needed by our bodies since our bodies are weak and they constantly need to be refreshed through food and rest. If the machines and the animals do need rest for them to function well according to their nature, we too human persons need to constantly take good care of our bodies for us to live with good health and longer life.

But rest is also meant for our souls and not only for our bodies. Such rest is needed beginning with the things that we think of and the way we think. We must rest our minds and not think of our works, preoccupations, problems and even ambitions. Rather we must think of our loved ones, families, relatives and friends. We must think of our neighbors whom Christ has commanded us to love. And most especially we must think of God whom we have to love with all our heart, mind and being. It is actually when we raise our heart and mind to God that our mind and soul are rested well. St. Augustine says “My soul is not at rest until it rests in you, my God.”

Prayer is the only way by which we communicate with God. In this communication, what is important is not so much what we talk to or request from God but rather what God talks to us when we silence our heart and mind and listens to the message of God. Bible reading and meditation can be of great help in listening to the Word of God. All the things that we do on Sunday must especially be consecrated to God.

The Holy Eucharist is the highest form of prayer. All of us are obliged to participate in the Sunday’s celebration of the Holy Mass especially in our parishes’ churches. It is in the Sacrifice of the Mass that we join our sacrifices to the supreme sacrifice of Christ in the Calvary and we unite ourselves to Him in His perfect glorification of God the Father. We have to remember that we are not only created in the image and likeness of God but also created by Him, in Him and for Him.

Let us then heed the exhortation of Christ in the gospel. May every Sunday we rest for a while in His loving embrace by participating in the Holy Mass, giving help to the needy, spending more time with our families and resting our bodies from our daily works. May we glorify God by our words and deeds during Sundays and everyday of our lives.