Friday of the First Week In Ordinary Time
Today's first reading (Hebrews 4:1-5, 11) seems to proclaim something odd: that we have to strive for eternal rest. The Hebrews passage seems very busy, with constant commands to work for our rest, and that struck me as rather contradictory at first; how can working so hard for something make me feel rested or make me want to rest? I know from experience that when I've put a lot of energy into doing something, my adrenaline gets going and it is harder to rest. I have a new baby at home, and one of the first things the pediatricians told me was that sleep begets sleep. So a new parent wants to aim for good naps during the day because that will lead to good sleep at night as well.
But of course, the scripture passages mean something different by work and rest than what I usually mean in my everyday life. In the gospel passage (Mark 2:1-12), we have the story of the paralyzed man whose friends cut a hole in the roof so that they can put the man smack dab in front of Jesus. I am struck by the fact that it is not the paralyzed man's doing that brings him to Jesus, but that of his friends. The paralyzed man himself does nothing in this gospel until the very end when he obeys Jesus' command to take up his mat. In fact, the text even alludes to the fact that Jesus notices THEIR faith, plural, not the faith of the man himself. It is their faith that leads Jesus to forgive the man's sins. So the question of whose work gets us rest is one of the questions raised by these passages.
Jesus' forgiveness, of course, raises the hackles of the Pharisees who are present. Jesus, as usual, presents us with a tricky question to answer: which is easier, to heal a person's sins or to heal a person's body? But the point is not which one is easiest to heal, but the fact that they are connected. Jesus tells the Pharisees that he will heal the physical problems so that they'll see he also has authority to heal spiritual sickness. Spiritual and physical things are connected in ways we cannot quite see - I can tell, sometimes, when friends of mine are going through rough spiritual patches where they doubt God, because it comes out in the way they look and carry themselves. Bodies and souls are connected.
That gives us a further clue about the kind of work we are to be about as Christians: it is not necessarily work that will make us too tired to rest, but it is work that does make us better people. Acts of kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and the like are the work that show up in the spiritual and bodily parts of our lives. As we become more generous, for instance, our bodies reflect that: they smile more, they are more relaxed, more welcoming. The same is true for other "works" that Jesus commands us to do and these are the kinds of works that the author of Hebrews has in mind. And, going back to the fact that it is the paralyzed man's friends who do the work necessary for his salvation, sometimes the work we are to be about is not FOR ourselves, but is for someone else. Today let us reflect on ways we can do Christ's work and so become more at rest in Christ. Perhaps we need to invite someone to church, or be more kind or joyful or generous.
- Jana M. Bennett