04
Feb
Feb
I think, this is what the Lord is telling me and many of us today: “You are busying yourself on unnecessary things. You don’t have sufficient rest, and you spoil yor health – of body and mind. Please, go and rest!” We are living in a busy world. Often, too busy with our work, our struggles for climbing up the ladder, or even genuine efforts to be at the service of others. Our busy schedules are often at the cost of our relationship with the family, our own health and more importantly, at the cost of our relationship with the Lord. Jesus tried to make a retreat, but he couldn’t get away. Does it sound familiar? God reveals the nature of a concerned Father and invites us to rest, amidst our frenzy life and work in this busy world. He tells his disciples: “Go off by yourselves to a remote place to have some rest.” “Go and rest,” the Lord invites us. What would he say to us today? He might say, “You poor thing, you are wrecked from overwork! Like the seventy-two, you hardly have time to eat! The world hasn’t got any wiser in twenty centuries. My friend, please go and rest!” In today’s reading we see the Twelve returning from their mission. Obviously, they had not done anything similar earlier. He told them they needed to rest: to rest and to be silent. We find Jesus himself moving away for his personal time – time with the Father. Scattered here and there through the gospels are verses that tell us volumes about Jesus on his retreat. “When daylight came he left the house and made his way to a lonely place” (Lk 4:42). Another is Mk 1:35, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” See also Lk 5:16, “He would always go off to some place where he could be alone and pray.” And Lk 6:12, “He went out into the hills to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.” How busy are you today? Why not take a break… Go with the Lord for a time of rest!