Hebrews 4:1-5, 11. Psalm 78:3-4, 6-8. Mark 2:1-12.
None of you has come too late for God's promised place of rest.
In today's first reading, the author of the Hebrews affirms his (or her) readers that God's promise holds good for all, and no one is late for it. Everyone has an opportunity to receive what God promised: a place of rest.
What is this place? It is not a physical place, but a state. It is a symbol or metaphor for a state of consciousness. This is not a place where you go to, but a place where you come from. It is a dimension of experience available here and now, and accessible to you right in this moment. You don’t die into it; you awaken into it.
What about rest? Most of us can identify ourselves with some restlessness in our beings day in and day out. We search out for entertainment after entertainment in order to give ourselves some rest, but eventually we become even more restless and empty. Entertainments turn out to be empty and superficial.
We can find these new drugs of entertainment right at our homes: television soap operas and serials, reality shows, sports telecasts, WhatsApp videos and forward messages. All these are good. Drugs are good, but only in small, tiny quantities when you really need them. Drugs in themselves have no problem, but the user or the abuser determines it all. Addiction is the problem. As Richard Rohr says, addiction is wanting more and more of what doesn't work. Our addictions could be to almost anything: our own self-image, family, job, security, social status, good name, achievements, awards, approval, food, drink.
Even our work (good work and God's work) many times can be characterized by lack of peace or restless pacing and movement from one event to another, from one programme to another: from pillar to post. If it is a chronic or unbridled restlessness, an absence of peace, then we need to take the admonition of today's first reading seriously. Such a negative restlessness can lead us into negative energy that gives death not life. The only way to give peace and life to others is to absorb the rest that the Lord promises us today.
Facing our shadow self and our addictions is almost the heart of modern psychiatry and therapy. We have so many means to deal with our restlessness and addictions. Prayer, silence and meditation are God's answers to our addictions to our habits. Even to stop the repetitive and never-ending commentary in our obsessive mind is itself a much needed rest. To empty our mind and fill our hearts with peace is to enter God's promised land of rest.
So when we pray for someone "Eternal rest grant unto her," it does not refer to a future place, but a present state of rest to which all of us are invited and given access to. Prayer or resting in God is for the purpose of moving from negative energy to positive energy, from death to love and life; otherwise you have not prayed at all. Thought and energy have consequences.
Remember, you can be doing very good things but, if you are doing them with negative energy, the results will not be life-giving for yourself or for others. The opposite is also true: You can do faulty things but, if you're doing them with positive life-energy, they will still bear fruit for the world. (Isn't this really good news?) As Yahweh said of imperfect David, "I see the heart instead of appearances" (see 1 Samuel 16:7).
No comments:
Post a Comment