I remember in Novitiate when I was a Pallottine we
would have what the Novice Master called “Desert afternoons.” We had these two times a week, for about 3
hours each time. It consisted in going
back to your rooms and praying, usually a meditative prayer of some type, e.g.
Lexio Divina. We were not to exit our
rooms or talk to anyone; we had to observe sacred silence. Very difficult for this former New Yorker –
North Jersey guy, but I made it through and looking back I realized just how
beneficial those dessert days really were since it allowed me to experience
Jesus’ invitation to, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a
while.”
The
call by Jesus to rest for a while is not just for religious, for contemplatives
or hermits, it is a call to all of us.
God knows how much we get caught up in the world and in our very lives
and that is why God himself sets the example. “On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken. God blessed the seventh
day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in
creation.” (Gn 2:2-3, NABRE) As you
know there is a time for everything, be it work, play, or rest. Sometimes, however, the work aspect gets the
best of us.
Everyone
who is able should work as St. Paul demands, since work itself provides man
with dignity and a sense of accomplishment and contribution. But our jobs are not our only work, we have
families, friends, clubs, fraternities, gatherings, sporting events, etc., that
we must attend to. Often times this
other work spills over into the day that God has made holy and hinders or totally prevents us from going to that deserted place and rest for a while. For a number of parents run into the following problem or one similar to it; little Johnny’s seven year old soccer club team plays on
Sundays, and this team will prepare Johnny to become the next Pele, therefore we can't get to mass on the weekends. And by the way, my little Johnny is the best
there is. So how can we rest on Sunday
or even go to mass? Johnny can’t miss his soccer match, it's just too important to miss. That is just one example of all the
distractions in life.
There
are many other distractions in life that prevent us from resting in the Lord;
we can call it noise as well. You see,
when Jesus calls into the desert he calls us to that quiet place. Yet, it is hard for us to go there. We have cell phones that stick to us like a
real piece of our own bodies. We are
constantly on them, e.g. emails, calendar, photos, facebook, surfing. We replaced boom box radios with Iphones and
Androids. Children are programmed with
schedules, their days are filled from 7am until they fall asleep, they are
bombarded with noise.
All
of us are guilty of living in the noise.
Some noise is not bad, all of us have to get busy with our lives in
order to get things done, however like everything else, all things need rest
and refueling. Our rest and refueling
comes from God. How often during the day
or during the week do I even take 10 minutes for myself to be quiet in the
presence of God, can I even turn off my cell phone for 60 seconds or do I make
the poor excuse, “I have children.”
Well, we didn’t have cell phones to call our parents when we were kids
and lo and behold we came out ok!
God
calls us to quiet so that we can hear his voice, so that we may rest from our
labors, so that we may be refreshed, so that we may escape the noise that is all
around us distracting us from him. All
of us are called to be hermits for just a little while, trust me God knew what
he was doing when he made the Sabbath a day of rest. How often do I hear people say, “if only I
can get 15 minutes of peace and quiet?”
The thing is, you can, it’s just a matter of wanting to and being able
to let go of all the noise. “Jesus said
to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
FJ
Thank you Father John ...I needed to hear these words...to take some time and just to "listen" to the quiet of my life among all of it's current noise.
ReplyDeleteAnne Parmelee