Today God says directly to you: go to a deserted place and rest a while.

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while”

Our life, no matter how long it lasts, is full of tiredness, worry and fear. We are afraid of so many things. Loneliness, loss of loved ones, death, poverty, illness, today day. We are also afraid of losing our rights and "face" to others. We are often tired in the morning, before anything starts. Tired first of ourselves, of our weakness, of pretending. We are often tired of those we love, of ourselves and of our future.

There are people who, in all this torment, add another burden to themselves, which they call God. God is for them a theological and moral system, which must be understood as much as possible and then His law needs to be fulfilled. They allow the evil spirit to plant the greatest lie in their hearts, that God demands something from them, that they must beg, deserve or buy salvation.

Sometimes we forget that what give us peace, what unites us with God, is called love, which has no pre-conditions. To make conditions would be dishonest on God's part. He knows we wouldn't make it. Precisely for this reason he becomes one of us, to reach us as equals and thus to teach us the love from which actions flow. A man who truly loves wants to act for his loved one.

Listening to God who wants to take care of your weariness, name what wears you out, what is a burden for you. Focus on two or three things and go to Him with it. But beware! Jesus does not promise you a relaxing massage. He says, "Take my yoke and learn from me." We are going to Him with our burden, but at the same time we need to take Him. We need to learn from Him, and that means that all our burdens we should carry with Him. Not He for us, but with us. Jesus does not delude us with mental well-being. His consolation, that's something more. It is the awareness of God's closeness in our lives. How do we recognize it? For example, in the fact, that we learn to agree in our lives to what is difficult, what is incomprehensible.

Today's Gospel warns us against a certain lifestyle that has become fashionable: to work very intensively, often in a hurry, in order to achieve the best possible results quickly, to succeed and then to allow ourselves to use this world... To some extent, this applies to both lay and clergy. And both, if they want to carry out their vocation and the mission entrusted to them solidly, there is no shortage of duties, challenges, worries, after which sooner or later fatigue appears. And if we find time to relax, we can't organize it properly.

So, we have to learn to rest again, without loud music, without constant contact with the computer and smartphone. Each of us, in his own way, need to take Jesus' words about going separately into the wilderness. Modern man is afraid to be alone, is afraid to be only by himself, but only on this condition will he see himself as he is, his smallness, spiritual poverty and everything that really limits him.

We read in Cardinal Robert Sarah's book “The Power of Silence”: "Today we are accustomed to the hustle and bustle of hurry, just as we have become accustomed to breathing polluted air. However, when we break away from the noise around us and tame our inner confusion, when we stop being afraid of silence, then we breathe deeply. Truth and goodness do not scream, they are waiting to be discovered. Silence knows its full meaning. You have to listen to hear. Be silent to choose a word. Stop to find direction. Silence is presence. Silence is necessary to establish intimate relationship between God and man. It is also necessary to create deep interpersonal relationships and not to lose touch with oneself".

Go and rest. Be amazed today, look at the obvious things (like the stars in the sky) and be surprised. Be surprised to look at the man, the woman in the store and the bus driver. Be surprised by this, because behind them is the Creator of everything, who through these people wants to relieve you. Let this day be a day for you to look up, to look at your yoke and weariness with a different perspective. I get tired, but I make the effort because I love, not because I have to, but because I love.

Thought from Saint Faustina: “O life so dull and monotonous, how many treasures you contain! When I look at everything with the eyes of faith, no two hours are alike, and the dullness and monotony disappear. The grace which is given me in this hour will not be repeated in the next. It may be given me again, but it will not be the same grace. Time goes on, never to return again. Whatever is enclosed in it will never change; it seals with a seal for eternity”. (Diary 62)

“I went across the garden one afternoon and stopped on the shore of the lake; I stood there for a long time, contemplating my surroundings. Suddenly, I saw the Lord Jesus near me, and He graciously said to me, All this I created for you, My spouse; and know that all this beauty is nothing compared to what I have prepared for you in eternity. My soul was inundated with such consolation that I stayed there until evening, and it seemed to me like a brief moment. That was my free day, set apart for a one-day retreat, so I was quite free to devote myself to prayer. Oh, how the infinitely good God pursues us with His goodness! It often happens that the Lord grants me the greatest graces when I do not at all expect them”. (Diary 158)

Until Tomorrow

fr. george