Sunday, September 5th - The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
A MESSAGE FROM OUR ASSOCIATE PASTOR
A blessed day everyone, Cheers! I am here in behalf of Fr. Bill, our Pastor. He asked me to do this parish bulletin as he is away to take sometime of vacation and have a bit of rest. Yes priests do need some rest from our ministries because it can be overwhelming and challenging too. You know that too, right? When you work in order to provide and care for your self and family.
Indeed, work is essential part of our life in order to live and to support ourselves and people we love. Work is God’s gift to us; it is supposed to give life and meaning. Though work is important, it should NOT consume all of our time. Our work should NOT robs our time for God, for family, friends, and other delights of life. Lest life becomes burdensome, or we can experience burnt-out or even fall into sickness or meaninglessness of life especially in this time of Covid situation.
Jesus said, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” At this point the Lord was sensing that the apostles were tired and exhausted after their initial mission, so he asked them, to take a rest. Taking a vacation and some time off is necessary to maintain a healthy and productive life. We all need some time to rest, to take a vacation or some kind of relaxation. This is a legitimate human need. Jesus knows it. That is why, out of compassion for his disciples, he invites them to take a break.
But we must have a correct understanding of rest. During summer, many people go on vacation. But most of them return more physically tired and stressed due to lack of sleep, fatigue, and some are even financially exhausted. This is not the rest that Jesus is talking about. Allow me to give you my acronym for the word R.E.S.T. R-enewing E-verything on S-abbath T-ime
Jesus invites us “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” in other words, we need to take the rest that the apostles took: resting with the Lord. Resting = Renewing as Jesus is the source of strength and peace that everyone needs. Taking a vacation or resting without Jesus will just make us more stressed and tired. In fact, Jesus is not only talking about resting or relaxation. He is really talking about being with him: “Come to me.” The most important reason for taking a rest is not so much as being away from a stressful job or going someplace. Rather, it is to give us the opportunity to be with Jesus.
What should we renew? Everything, our personal goals and dreams, our relationship and commitment, lest we will forget or lose what we hold dearest. So let us Renew Everything, especially during our liturgical celebration on Sunday, “the Day of the Lord.” We are being encouraged to take some rest on Sunday and avoid work so that we can have time to go to Mass with our family and be with God.
Sadly, we see more and more people becoming stressed and anxious. The reason is not just that they do not have time to make a meaningful rest and vacation, but they also neglected the observance of Sunday as the Day of the Lord. Thus they are already been defeated, depleted and exhausted at the first day of the week, Sunday, because they have lost the sense of meaning and devotion of spending Time with the Lord. As the saying goes, “Seven days without God makes one weak.”
When we value a person, we have to give Time. When we love our families, we have to spend “quality time” with them. It is not enough that we work hard to be able to give and provide for our family’s needs. Our outward gestures of love and kindness must be accompanied by something more essential, that is, the gift of time, the gift of presence. But we also take care of ourselves in order that we stay healthy enough to be with our families. And when we love and care for ourselves, we also take time for rest and relaxation. Moreover, when we love God, we also have to allot quality time for Him. That is why we need to give time for prayer. We need to pray in order to be one with God and to communicate with God. We will never know His will for us, unless we do communicate with Him, for it is in prayer that we can discern God’s will for us, by listening to Him with our hearts.
In summary let us all, R-enew E-verything on S-unday T-ime. In the end it is truly our rest in the Lord that will give us the strength needed to face life’s biggest challenges. Please take a Rest to avoid Arrest. Stay healthy, happy and holy. Amen
Fr. Jose