Rest Home

 Raise your hand if you understand weariness. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been so worn down, you can hardly remember your own name. Have you ever been so exhausted that your hair hurts? Weariness is more than just being tired; it is utter physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual depletion. We are just not ourselves when we are weary, labored, or burdened. Jesus shows us his sweet pastoral side in today’s gospel. "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” For me I picture Jesus sitting on a shaded park bench and I show up all beaten down and spent, drowsy from dealing with the daily anxieties of life, heavy and laden with useless worry, desperate for relief from the anguish, and he pats the seat next to him for me to sit. There are no words or deep conversations, just his empty lap for me to lie down and rest. He strokes my hurting weary hair, and he sings me a lullaby. Eventually, I fall into a deep sleep and when I wake, my tense shoulders feel squishy, my hair no longer throbs, my worries have faded, and I know that I am deeply loved. 

Jesus wants us to be our truest self because we were created in the pure and total love of his Father. The secret to becoming our truest self is given in today’s gospel if we are brave enough to trust in it, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,for I am meek and humble of heart;and you will find rest for yourselves.For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." Meekness and humility of heart is the key to lightening our loads and shedding our weariness. When we become docile to the love of our Father and allow Him to be God and Savior, lover of our souls, and center of our lives, then and only then will we ever be free of the burdens that weigh us down and tire us on the journey. Another word for meekness is peacefulness and I don’t know about you, but peace is the fruit of the Spirit that I cherish most because it allows me to stop fighting and to simply be. Simply being is resting and I love me some good and lasting rest these days. I spent so many years scurrying about like a squirrel collecting acorns for the winter, and not enough time sitting under a tree enjoying the summer. My life was about doing and not about being. 

Jesus wants us to rest today and enjoy our lightness. He will do all our heavy lifting if we simply come to him with peaceful and gentle hearts. I will focus on the status of my heart as I pray throughout the day. One of the old school terms for senior living facilities is “Rest Home” and what a great blessing it is for me to learn yet one more spiritual insight from my sweethearts. They have no problem resting at any given moment of the day, and while their lives are not necessarily easy, they show me how to rest my weary head on the chest of Jesus in the midst of whatever comes my way. I was sharing with a friend that I had successfully managed to sing an entire room of my sweethearts to sleep and the peace that filled the room was worth every note. The slow breathing and relaxed spirits invited me into the meek and humble heart of God where sweet rest and light burdens wait for me. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 EX 3:13-20

Moses, hearing the voice of the LORD from the burning bush, said to him,
"When I go to the children of Israel and say to them,
'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,'
if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?"
God replied, "I am who am."
Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel:
I AM sent me to you."

God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall you say to the children of Israel:
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you.

"This is my name forever;
this my title for all generations.

"Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and tell them: 
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
has appeared to me and said:
I am concerned about you
and about the way you are being treated in Egypt;
so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt
into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, 
Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,
a land flowing with milk and honey.

"Thus they will heed your message. 
Then you and the elders of Israel
shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him:
"The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word.
Permit us, then, to go a three-days' journey in the desert,
that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God.

"Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go
unless he is forced.
I will stretch out my hand, therefore,
and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of wondrous deeds there.
After that he will send you away."

Responsorial Psalm PS 105:1 AND 5, 8-9, 24-25, 26-27

R.(8a) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations--
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He greatly increased his people
and made them stronger than their foes,
Whose hearts he changed, so that they hated his people,
and dealt deceitfully with his servants.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He sent Moses his servant;
Aaron, whom he had chosen.
They wrought his signs among them,
and wonders in the land of Ham.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Alleluia MT 11:28

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 11:28-30

Jesus said:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."