The Christian rest

FOR at least two to three consecutive days in January, the Masses had gospels that made references to the Sabbath rest of the Jews.

This led me to talk in the homilies about the meaning of Sabbath, but most especially about the concept of rest that should govern our Christian behavior.

Rest is a very important part of our life. We are meant to work, of course, but deep inside us also is an unmistakable yearning for rest.

We need to know what exactly it is, what would comprise proper rest, how to find it, etc. There is confusion, and on these questions, I believe, depend the vitality and effectiveness of our life.

Fact is many people are finding it hard to get good rest. There are those who are harassed by a continuing heavy load of work. They do not know how to cope with the situation. Poor souls, they draw no meaning from tiredness.

There also are others who, in spite of the abundant time and means for resting, still cannot find rest. "Idle they remain, yet rest they cannot," the Bible says of them.

Already many secular writers have shown right inklings about what rest is. They unfortunately remain in the external phenomenon of rest without being able to penetrate into its essence and real causes.

The Christian concept of rest brings the matter to a deeper level involving a number of elements that include union with God, joy over the work done during the day, ability to commune with nature and other persons, etc.

In the end, it's God's rest -- first revealed in the Sabbath rest after the world's creation and then deepened and perfected with Christ's revelation about it -- that constitutes the pattern and goal of our rest.

We can find true rest only in God. Thus, our Lord himself said: "Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." (Mt 11,28) And St. Augustine exclaimed: "Our heart is restless until it rests in you."

Of course, from whom else can we expect to receive our true rest? Certainly not our own ways that can only do so much. Rest can only come from God. It's faith in God that enables us to recover strength from weakness.

This is a crucial point to learn, since many people today think resting is just a physical or psychological affair that needs physical or psychological solutions.

We are human beings, free and responsible persons, and ultimately children of God, not just animals or some social creatures -- and our rest has to correspond to the full measure of who we are.

Anyone who dares to look for rest outside of God would be looking for it in vain. At best, he could encounter some semblance of rest, but not the real one that truly renews and refreshes him always whatever the circumstance.

Our rest can only be achieved when we get to be happy with what we have done during the day. That is, when our conscience would not bother us, when we truly follow the commandments of God in love.

"Keep the law and counsel and there shall be life to your soul," the book of Proverbs says. "You shall rest and your sleep shall be sweet." (3,21.24)

Since our life here on earth is marked with imperfections, we still can manage to rest if we also know how to suffer and reconcile ourselves with God the way Christ showed it to us. This is fundamental for us to learn.

Our Lord's obedience to his Father's will by dying on the cross is emblematic of this way of finding rest and peace while being in the midst of suffering and sorrow. We also have to learn how to carry our cross.

St. Paul has a beautiful tribute to this key Christian way of finding rest in this imperfect world of ours:

"In all things we suffer tribulation, but we are not distressed; we are sore pressed, but we are not destitute; we endure persecution, but we are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we don't perish.

"We always bear about in our body the dying of Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame." (2 Cor 4,8-10)

It's important for us to realize very deeply that finding rest means looking for God and finding him -- in good times and in bad, in ordinary circumstances and in extraordinary ones, in the big and small things of our life.