St. Mary Parish, Manchester at 210 West Main Street, Manchester, MI 48158 US - Rest and Recreation
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In the First Reading (Jer 23:1-6) the prophet Jeremiah tells us: I will gather the remnant of my flock… and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. The prophecy is referring to the Messiah’s careful attention to every member of the human race. Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit, we read in the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 22:1-6).
The Gospel (Mark 6:30-34) on this Sunday shows us Jesus’ solicitude for his disciples, tired out as they are after an apostolic mission to the neighbouring towns and villages. Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest awhile, He says to them.
And the Evangelist explains that there were so many people coming and going at that time that they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves. What marvellous things Jesus must have asked them and told them (J. Escrivá, Furrow, 470).
Our life, like theirs, is one of service to Christ, to our family and to society; it is a life of work and of dedication to souls. And so we shouldn’t be surprised if we sometimes feel tired and need a rest.
In our free time we need to recuperate our energies if we are to serve better and also avoid injuring our health. If this latter were to happen it would, among other considerations, have repercussions on the people around us, on the quality of what we offer to God and on our apostolic task; it would affect the proper attention to children, to husband or wife, to our brothers or sisters, to our friends; our apostolate, and the attention and formation of the people whom Our Lord has placed under our care, would all suffer as a result.
On occasion we may be seriously obliged to take a rest. Saint Gregory Nazianzen comments that a cord cannot endure constant tension, and an archer needs to loosen the ends of a bow if he wants to be able to draw it again later on (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Prayer 26).
God wills that as far as we ourselves are concerned we should take care to be in good physical condition, because He expects a lot of us. See how much God loves us, my brethren, says Saint Augustine, because when we rest, it is really He who rests! (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Psalms, 131, 12)
But we have to rest like good Christians, in the first place by sanctifying our loss of energy and loving God in our tiredness when circumstances force us to work without a break for a long period. In situations of this sort we can draw special comfort from having recourse to Jesus Our Lord, who himself so often ended his day exhausted. He understands us well.