Weary? Rest in Heaven

Today's Eucharistic readings (Isaiah 40:25-31; Matthew 11:28-30( are like a tonic, healing whatever is aching in me.  Together they invite me to be renewed.

Isaiah tells us that "those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  Then Matthew presents Jesus' invitation: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

These are delightful promises of rest and renewal.  But as I sit with them, I'm aware that neither of them promises an end to the work.  The burden may be light, but there's a yoke and a burden.  We may be renewed, but we will continue to go forward.  So this is not a promise of the end of growth, or movement, or progress.  It's a promise, I think, of another kind of growth.

I spend much of my life striving.  My spiritual director calls it "efforting."  I put my shoulder to the plow - and if there's no plow available, I will build one!  I have plowed through much of my life, until exhaustion hits and I have to stop and rest.  I've done a lot, but that's not really the point of life.  If I want to know God, I need to stop the striving.  I need to let God in.

This easy yoke is the yoke of patient trust, of gentleness.  It's the yoke of living in the present even while doing work that carries us forward.  It's the "burden" of following where God calls, at God's pace - a much lighter burden than those we often put on ourselves and one another.  This yoke, this burden, is sustainable.  We can be renewed even as we continue.

In the convent of St. John Baptist in New Jersey there's an illuminated calligraphy that says "In Coelo Quies" - Rest in Heaven.  Now, you can take that to mean we should work our tails off and rest after we die, but I always thought it meant I should rest in God's world while doing the work here.  At least, that's what I took as its wisdom.  I think that's what Isaiah and Matthew are getting at.

Today, rest in heaven.  Ask God to lead you.  Let Jesus use you, gently and humbly.  Give thanks for the love that reaches to renew us.