Summer, leisure and the Lord’s Day

In the Gospel, Jesus invites us to “Come away … and rest awhile” (Mk.6:31). This is normally a good summertime theme since this is the season that many of us look forward to a change of pace in our busy lives. Due to the COVID experience that we all have been living through in recent months, most of our accustomed rhythms have been severely disrupted.
 
Whatever the rhythms of our lives may be, from time-to-time we need to refresh ourselves. We need time away from our ordinary work and daily concerns to restore our energies, to spend time with family and friends (to the extent that social distancing allows), and to remember our Creator. Because of travel restrictions this year, many planned vacations may become “stay-cations.” At home or away from home, however, the rhythm of a regular “sabbath” rest is very much a part of God’s plan for our wellbeing: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mk.2:27).
 
Unfortunately, the enjoyment of true leisure is practically a lost art in our culture. Many of us have become addicted to busyness, activity and screen time. We are too dependent on our smart phones and electronic devices to be able to simply relax. Even during our vacation, if we are fortunate enough to have one, we often feel compelled to stay connected with work, with news and social media or to fill our days with so much activity that we return even more weary and dissipated in spirit than before.
 
Often the burdens of life may not permit the kind of vacation that we long for. Still, the Lord desires to refresh us. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt.11:28). The rest and refreshment that our hearts long for always will elude us until we recognize the spiritual nature of our longing. Saint Augustine wrote many centuries ago, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you!”
 
For Christians, Sunday is our weekly Sabbath, our day of rest. Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is part of the rhythm that the law of God and his Church have established and made holy for our well-being. It helps us keep first things first. We need the Lord’s Day.
 
The Mass is the heart of the Lord’s Day for Catholics. Living without public Masses and Holy Communion for several months during the pandemic perhaps has helped many of us to appreciate the importance of Mass in the rhythm of our lives. For others it may be the opposite: it has become easier to forgo. Even though the obligation to attend Mass has been temporarily dispensed in our archdiocese, we cannot lose sight of how foundational the Eucharist is for us.
 
Now that Mass is once again available for us on a regular basis, it is very important that we make it a priority once again to give God his due worship and thanksgiving and receive from him the grace that he offers in the Eucharist. We need the experience of celebrating Mass together in order to sustain our faith, to nourish our hope and to continue to grow in love.
 
At the heart of the Lord’s Day is our gratitude for God’s mercy in creating and redeeming us in Christ. It is the day when we commemorate the Resurrection of the Lord. It is our primary holy day that roots our lives in worship through the celebration of Mass with the Christian community. The Sunday Eucharist establishes the rhythm for the rest of our week. We renew the sacrifice of Christ our High Priest who in turn nourishes us with his word and the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. The Mass is the source from which flows the grace that enlivens and sanctifies all our work, family and leisure activities.
 
In our secular culture, it is impossible to sustain a living faith or to live in friendship with Christ as missionary disciples unless we are committed to keeping the Lord’s Day holy. This is a very real challenge. Maybe we have gotten out of the habit of regular Mass attendance during the pandemic. Now is the time to renew that practice.
 
Despite how our culture has diminished the importance of Sunday, it is not a day just like any other. Our faithful observance of the Lord’s Day reminds us of who we are before God as members of a community rooted in the mysteries of Christ. It is a day for worship, for holy leisure, for family and friends; a day to build relationships within the Christian community and to form and exercise our faith in service to others. It is a day to become more aware of the rhythms of the created world and even to immerse ourselves in the beauties of nature. It reminds us of our dignity as sons and daughters, created in the image and likeness of God.
 
“Come away … and rest awhile.” Jesus invites each of us to refresh ourselves at the sources of life that the Lord’s Day offers us each week.