Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
One of the things my kids have made me realize is that rest is different than sleep. When I tell them it is time for some quiet time (aka "nap"), my five year old (who has wanted nothing to do with naps at any point in her life) will say, "But that means we can just rest, right Mama? We don't have to sleep."
Sleep is peaceful but it is a state of being unaware of what is going on around you. Rest - true rest - is also peaceful, but you are peaceful because of, or even in spite of the things happening around you.
So when today's first reading mentions rest (Hebrews 4:1-5, 11), I have my kids' distinction in mind. And it's a helpful distinction, for the author of Hebrews is telling people to "strive" to be at rest in God. We might not initially think that "rest" should involve striving because that seems to involve work.
Yet the author points out directly that the way to strive is to hear God's word rightly, and be obedient to God. These are actions; to rest in God is not to be asleep and unaware (at least not yet! Paul speaks of people who have died as those who are "asleep in the Lord")
Notice that the actions required of us if we seek to rest in God are particular kinds of actions. These are not "charge in and get the job done" actions but rather require a lot of waiting, patience, and attention to detail. Striving, when done well, is a kind of constant desire to do something well and rightly; obedience is likewise a constant awareness of God's will for our lives.
Being at rest in God is therefore a contemplative kind of activity - we are not doing nothing, but our bodies, minds and hearts are meant to be on constant alert, waiting and watching and listening to God. While being constantly alert may seem tiring, this is not a "DEFCON 5" kind of constant alertness. This is an intent alertness to God who moves and lives in our lives in a very gentle, slow, and sometimes barely perceptible way.
The paralytic man and his friends mentioned in today's gospel (Mark 2:1-12) have been living with this state of constant alertness for quite some time, I imagine. They have lived with a constant desire to find healing. That is the main reason they are able both to identify Jesus as the man they are seeking AND press on in spite of the crowds to do the quite unorthodox thing of punching a hole through the roof.
True rest in God, true peace, means that sometimes we Christians probably will be called to do things that seem surprising and sudden to outsiders. But to those who have been constantly listening and watching, it will not be at all surprising.
Today, let us pray for the grace to have true rest - to listen and be obedient to God's will for us.
- Jana M. Bennett