I love seeing how relaxed guys are on Father’s Day, as if they’re not always resting, right ladies? I’m just kidding; at least they’re not feeling guilty about resting today.
When I was on my first assignment, I was getting ready to leave Saint Barnabas. I was there for four years, and there was a huge grade school there. At the beginning of the mass, when I walked into the church, there were hundreds of kids.
The boys were all wearing construction paper Roman collars, and the girls were all wearing little veils that they had made. At the end of the mass, they did a little presentation and said, “Father, we know that there are two things that are so important to you. The first is vocation, vocation, vocation, and the second is vacation, vacation, vacation.” They are both important to me because I think we need them both. I think we need vocation, and I think we need vacation.
I was thinking about this that we hear in the gospel today: how the man scatters seed, and then all he does is he goes to bed, and he wakes up and goes to bed, he sleeps and he rises. There’s this rhythm. Without him doing anything, the seeds would begin to grow. God is saying that’s how it is with the Kingdom of God; there’s this rhythm to life that while we do work and while we rest and while we work and while we rest, God does something all by himself with the growth. We have nothing to do with the growth that he is doing. We just get to enjoy and reap those benefits.
In monastic life, the Benedictines have a phrase called ‘ora et labora,’ which means pray and work. Ora – pray, labora – work. Pray and work. And if you’ve ever been to a Benedictine Monastery, for like a retreat, it’s so cool because that’s what they do; they rest and they work and they pray and then they rest. They even wake up at 3:00 in the morning to say the office of readings, and then they go back to sleep. They wake up for the morning prayer. They do their work, come back at lunch, take a siesta, and their whole day is a rhythm of rest, work, rest, play, work, and play.
I thought about how important that is for us. It’s funny that we have to have a commandment called, ‘Keep Holy the Sabbath.’ It’s funny that we have to be commanded to take a day of rest and to make one day of our week Holy, because that is so important to us and it’s important to God. He created us to have times of work, but also times of rest. And so, as we look at summer and vacation summer, beginning June 21st (yeah, so next Friday), I think it is June 21st, I want you to think about your summer. Are you planning ahead with your summer to truly make it a relaxing summer break? I want to meditate on the word: vacation, and go letter by letter.
So, first of all, V: vocations.
It is important to us that we live our vocations so that we truly become the people that God wants us to be. There’s a nice saying, ‘When we go on vacation, there’s no vacation from vocation.’ Even when we go on vacation, we’re doing it to allow ourselves to be holy, to allow ourselves to be whole. So, when you go on vacation, there’s no dispensation for Sunday Mass. The only dispensation is if you’re sick or pregnant, but it’s so important that we make God a part of our vacation. That it is a holy time, a restful time.
Pope John the 23rd, before he would go to bed every night, he would pray, and he would say to God, “I’ve done everything I can do for today for your church, but it’s your church, and I’m going to bed.” And he would go to bed. He’s the Pope; it’s a pretty stressful job, right?
We could do the same thing before we go to bed. Say, “God, I’ve done everything I can today, I’m going to bed.” There’s a beautiful phrase in night prayer that says, ‘Now you let your servant go in peace, your work has been fulfilled.” So, just to offer ourselves to God and to go restfully to sleep at night and give him all of our problems. Say, “God, I did everything I could today; it’s all yours,” and go to sleep. Leave it to him. We do need to take Sabbath. We do need to take a rest. Think about your summer and how you can really make it a restful time for you, your family, and your friends.
The second thing is A: activities.
I think it’s good that we also have activities that can bring us leisure. This would be play. I think about times as a kid when we would go out in the summertime and play all day, where there’s no agenda. We play pick-up games, we play baseball, we’d ride our bikes, we’d just go about and play the entire day, and that was such a wonderful time in our lives.
We’re still called to do that, to have activities that we can do, playful activities that bring us rest and that bring us leisure, so think about that. What are some activities that you could do that are enjoyable for you that are pleasurable? It could be literature, it could be music, it could be gardening, arts, playing a musical instrument, walking, taking a hike, playing some sports, some useless games with people. Do some things that bring you rest, and do some activities that bring you rest.
Third is C: Calm.
To calm ourselves down. We live in such a stressful world. We work so hard and so fast. We need to calm ourselves down. Usually, when I make my annual retreat, an 8- day retreat, the first day or two is pretty much calming down. It takes a while for your mind to stop racing, and sometimes, I sleep most of those first two days before I really enter into some of the prayer. At the end of life, we say to someone, we ask God and we say, “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.” We’re called to experience even that rest here on Earth. Do things that you can find that make you restful.
The majority of professional workers in a survey said that they cannot stop their minds from working and then even when they are away from work, they’re constantly checking emails. It’s important that we disconnect from all of that because, when we rest, we are rejuvenated.
You know when you’re working on something, either a problem or a puzzle and you are kind of hitting a dead end and then you take some time away and you go rest and then you go back to it and all of a sudden the answer is right there? That’s the way it is. We need that rest because it restores us. So, take the time to rest this summer.
Maybe that could be just going to the pool, going to the lake, going on vacation. Doing something enjoyable.
Fourth is A: adoration.
Spending some time, one of my favorite definitions of prayer is wasting time with God. By that, I mean you’re not going to get anything accomplished, you’re just going to be with God, and enjoy being in his presence. That could be anything that you do at home, going to your special place of prayer, it could be coming up here to adoration spending time with God, but just wasting time with him and having leisure time with God. Just enjoying being in his presence. Might mean taking a little retreat, take a day. We have a beautiful retreat house, the Jesuit Retreat House in Parma, or Loyal the Lakes out by Akron. Take a day of retreat and just go and enjoy time being with God.
The next is T: talents.
We all have gifts and talents and vacation can be a wonderful time to do that. Just to allow our talents to flourish. Think about the talents that you have. What are the things that you do that you really enjoy doing; the gifts that God has given you to do? Spend time doing that. Spend time growing in that; spend time just enjoying and relishing in the talents that God has given to you.
The next is I: intermission.
Just like when you go to a play, there’s an intermission, and for 15 minutes, you go outside of the play, take some, take a break, and then go back in. Maybe you wish you had an intermission during some of the homilies, but taking some time for intermission. Just taking a break from what you’re doing; going away knowing that you’re going to come back to it and you’ll be able to enter into it more fully and more joyfully and more peacefully.
Next is O: outing.
Go on an outing. Go to that place you’ve always wanted to go but just haven’t been there yet. Go to the place that you want to go with your spouse, with your wife, with your family, with your children, with your friends. Do some kind of outing this summer. Just to get out of the ordinary work, the ordinary labor, and enjoy doing something new.
Then, finally, nature.
To be in nature is such a wonderful thing, and summer is a great time to do that, right? We can just go out and enjoy it. It’s amazing that we live in the midst of one of the best National Parks in the whole country, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We live in a National Park! It’s amazing, and it’s so beautiful. So, just get out into nature, go outside, spend some time hiking or walking, and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. Think about that. Try to find destinations, waterfalls, or beautiful places to hike, just to get out in nature, and you’ll find yourself completely restored.
Work and Play. When the farmer goes to sleep and wakes up, the seeds grow, He knows not how. It’s the same with all of us. As we rest, as we work, as we work, and as we play, God’s seed continues to blossom in us; we know not how.
Let’s take this summer to really allow ourselves to grow in our vocation and to enjoy our time of vacation, so that we can truly be the best people that God wants us to be, the holiest people that God wants us to be, the happiest people that God wants us to be, and while we do it all the seed will grow; we know not how.
