Rest for a While

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  This bible verse is used often for those who go on retreats, whether they are silent retreats or directed retreats.  The difference being is that on silent retreats, be they 3, 5, 7 or 30 days long one remains silent for a great majority of time during that retreat were as directed retreats would involve more interaction.  Can you imagine me on a 30 day silent retreat, oh boy! 

Anyway, this verse about being alone and quiet is not just about retreats, though I strongly recommend them.  It is also about making a daily retreat.  Think of where we are in society and culture.  The things that press on us the most are “busyness,” “constant contact,” and “the latest trend.”  All of these take us away from quite moments.

Busyness comes from all the things we need to do or get done.  Today 15 year old's have full schedules and calendars to deal with.  They are up at 6:30am getting ready for school, at 3:00pm practice or club event, 4:30pm dance class or karate practice, 6:00pm dinner, 7:00pm graduation practice, etc.  The same goes for adults, the days, the hours, minutes and seconds are all accounted for and taken up.  No time - not even for 60 seconds of quiet.  Sometimes in this busyness we do not even talk to one another and the days just go by and eventually become a blur.

Constant contact, oh yes, that’s the world we live in now, always on the phone – twitter, chats, facebook, text messages, rarely is a cell phone used for phone calls.  This constant contact is always on and running.  It doesn’t matter the time, be it 9am, noon, 6pm or even 3 in the morning.  I remember being out with Fr. Sanjai and Deacon Joe and Deacon Jerry and we observed a family sitting next to us, a family of four and each of them was doing their own thing on their cell phones, they were like zombies, entrenched in the virtual world while missing out on the most beautiful thing they had, each other.

The latest trend, this one just as big as the other two.  I love my Iphone 4, oh, here comes the Iphone 5, got to get it, wait, wait a minute, here comes the Iphone 5c and s, no, no, hold on, here is the latest Iphone 6 and soon and very soon the Iphone 6c and s.  It never ends, but more importantly where does it end for you?

In the midst of all this madness Jesus says to us, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  This resting is for our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being.  We must enter into it, to enter into those moments alone with our God in the peace and quiet.  It is there that we hear his voice clearly but it is also there were two friends simple are in one another’s presence.  Constant contact, busyness, and the latest trends take us away from the moments we all need with God.

I pray you put the phones down, get off the pads and computers, leave the schedule open, and don’t worry about the next big thing, “rather go into your room and pray to your heavenly Father,” it is there or any quiet place that you will find rest.  In that rest we will find that what is truly important is God, neighbor, and happiness, everything else is just fleeting and here one minute and gone the next, just like the latest iphone.

God Bless You, Fr. John 

Words of Great Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.   In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.  In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.  In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

This is one of the most positive and reassuring letters we have in the entire New Testament, this letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians.  It has positive elements on three counts, one) we have been blessed, two) we have been adopted and three) we have been redeemed.

This notion of being blessed but also given every spiritual blessing is something we receive at our baptism and confirmation.  Yet these blessings God choose for us from “before the foundation of the world.”  Think on that for a moment.  Before there was anything or at least before creation as we understand it we were already in God’s mind.  God has always loved us.  God has always known us, in some ways we existed in his being.  I know the whole time thing and how we actually may have existed could get confusing, but isn’t nice to know that God blessed us, chose us, and loved us always!  I believe, my personal opinion is that once God created us and we were here (on earth) and He was there (in Heaven) that He loved us so much that even though we may have sinned and the tree of life was removed from our midst He still longed to be with us that He became one of us.

This leads us into the second notion, that we are adopted.  When humanity fell to sin we separated ourselves from the Divine, we wounded our relationship with God, no longer able on our own to fix things if you will.  We became wayward sons and daughters, we became the prodigal son.  We were given our inheritance and then squandered it, through our own fault.  Yet, with all the weakness, with all the sin God did not want to leave us as wayward children, just like a parent will do everything humanly possible to bring back home a lost child.  God does the same, He searches for us always to bring us back home, so that He can be a Father to us and that we will always be His sons and daughters.

The third notion is closely connected to the idea of being adopted as His own and that is that He redeems us.  St. Paul says, “In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.” We are forgiven our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  It was not that God the Father was blood thirsty, but rather that it would be the greatest act of love that would forgive the gravest act of sins.  Jesus going quietly to the cross and not raising a finger to defend himself and cast into hell his accusers and executioners, which was you and I speaks with a love so great that it reaches to the heavens and restores the tree of life which we sent away through our own actions.  It is incredible that St. Paul uses the words, “in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.”  God is not cheap when He gives gifts, not like very frugal Uncle Harry who gave you a two dollar gift for your Graduation (just kidding Uncle Harry maybe the nicest guy in the word he’s just a little to frugal), no it’s not like that at all, God pours out His gifts in incredible abundance.

Please don’t ever sell yourselves short or be too hard on yourselves.  I know there is such a thing as Catholic guilt and in small doses and in the right mind frame that’s not always a bad thing, but if guilt drags you down you allow Satan to win.  God does not speak to us in terms of guilting (no such word) us into submission rather God speaks to us as beloved children.  Allow me to close as I opened so that you can once again hear the beautiful words St. Paul was so inspired to write and let these words be your hope.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.   In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.  In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. He