Jesus Commands the Apostles to Rest, James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum
I can imagine his face as he says these words; whereas the apostles are beside themselves, full of zeal and self-importance, Jesus brings them down from the clouds: Have a rest for a while! One can sense his quiet humor, his friendly irony as he brings them down to earth. It is precisely in this humanity of Jesus that his divinity becomes visible; here we see visibly what God is like. Any kind of hectic activity, even in religious affairs is alien to a New Testament picture of man.
We…overestimate ourselves when we imagine we are…indispensable and that the world or the Church depends on our frantic activity. [It] will be an act of humility and creaturely honesty to stop what we are doing, to acknowledge our limits, to take time to draw breath and rest….I want to suggest that we revise our catalogue of virtues in the Western world, where activity alone is regarded as valid and where the attitudes of beholding, wonder, recollection and quiet are of no account….
All this is illustrated by our use of leisure time….It is necessary for us, who live constantly in an artificial world of man-made things, to leave it behind and seek to encounter creation in its natural state.
I would like to mention a small but significant thing of which [St. John Paul II, then Karol Wojtyla] spoke in his retreat before Paul VI. There he tells of his conversations with a scientist, “a first-class research scientist and a fine man”, who told him: “Scientifically, I am an atheist…” yet…” Whenever I am confronted with the majesty of nature…, I feel that he exists.”
God does not come to light in the artificial world of man-made things. So it is all the more necessary for us to leave our workaday world behind and go in search of the breath of creation, in order that we may meet him and thus find ourselves.
During the excavations of the lost Roman civilization in North Africa…, an inscription of the 2nd or 3rd century was discovered in the marketplace of Timgad in Algeria. It says: “Hunting, bathing, playing, laughter – this is life.” I think of this every year when columns of holidaymakers stream south – in search for life. When, in years to come, people excavate the billboards advertising our vacation pursuits, they will find a similar picture of life set forth on them. Evidently most people experience their year in the office, in the factory or elsewhere as simply not living. On vacation we set off, to be free at last, to live at last. Swimming, playing, laughing – that is life.
Cannot we see here something of the truth of what the Bible says about man being a pilgrim in this world, unable completely to find a home in it? Surely we can discern here something of that restlessness of heart of which Augustine speaks. He who had been a restless seeker until he finally grasped why nothing was enough for him.
So our vacation habits could lead us to take a good look at ourselves and encourage us to embark on a more momentous adventure than we generally envisage. Surely the journey that is really worthy of man is one that takes him out of everyday constriction in the search for the Eternal, the search for the face of God, and hence enables him to transcend all earthly limitations. And might this not result in man discovering both freedom and a sense of being at home?
Blessings,
