The value of relaxation

February 20, 2020

237. On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims “man’s eternal rest in God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

In this way, Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. We are called to include in our work a dimension of receptivity and gratuity, which is quite different from mere inactivity. Rather, it is another way of working, which forms part of our very essence. It protects human action from becoming empty activism; it also prevents that unfettered greed and sense of isolation which make us seek personal gain to the detriment of all else. The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, “so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Ex 23:12).

Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centered on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor.

Source : Laudato Si'

Msgr. James F. Fetscher

St. Sebastian Church

Repent/Believe

Dear Family,

I hope you had a good time at the Mardi Gras celebration. For us Fat Tuesday came on Fat Saturday, Samedi Gras. Doesn’t sound as good as Mardi.

Once again, I’m writing this Twitch before last night’s gastric spectacular. I’m a man of hope, so I expect I will have something of a Cheshire cat smile on my face when you see me next.

Thank you to the women of our Council of Catholic Women (SSCCW), especially Kate Heffner and Kaye Drohan, who worked hard to give us a great time together.

Mardi Gras reminds me of being a little like a bear bulking up to get ready for a winter’s hibernation. However, we are preparing, not for hibernation but meditation, contemplation, reflection, introspection. My Thesaurus also gave me other words: thought, consideration, musing, concentration, deliberation.

Seems like meditation which was my first word has a whole lot of synonyms. To have all those other ways of describing the concept must be saying something about just how important the activity is.

All those words are a way of trying to get our arms around shaping and taking a Lenten journey.

We stop the ‘party’ of daily life. We begin to look inward. Jesus prepared for his public ministry by spending 40 days in desert solitude. That’s what Lent is, a time of backing off from the everyday contacts and transactions. I know that’s easy for me to say, and hard for all of us to do. But think about Jesus.

• What did he do out there?
• What was he thinking?
• What did he know?

After all, if he was, as Scripture says, “tested in every way, yet without sin,” (Hebrews 4:15) then all those questions could surely have been on his mind and heart.

• HOW DO WE PREPARE??
• How do we gear up for really understanding in deeper ways, the great gift of God’s love that Easter symbolizes?

In the last week I was trying (somewhat halfheartedly) to do a little straightening up in the rectory. On a shelf in the chapel, I found a little stack of notebooks in which I jotted down reflections from here and there. This particular bunch covered the years I have been here at St. Sebastian, coming up on 10. I read until after 2 a.m. For a while, I was on a mini-carousel of the new and the old.

It’s been a long time since I sat on a merry-go-round. (I think it was on Martha’s Vineyard.) Your horse doesn’t change, but all the things around you are constantly moving and adjusting. You can choose to focus on one or another, or not.

That reminds me of last Sunday’s reading, Sirach 15:17: Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.

I think, for Lent, I’m going to go through those notes more thoroughly (and not at 2 a.m.) I’m not interested in history for its own sake, but maybe to make myself more accountable. This will be about the future, not the past.

Here we are again, at the beginning of Lent, saying, “What should I give up? What should I do?” Good luck. But whatever comes to you, just ask the Holy Spirit to let your endeavor bring you closer and deeper to God’s love. After all, Mystery means you’ll always have more to discover. And as Corinthians told us last Sunday, “We ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

Have a good trip, and pray for me while you travel as I will for you.

In Jesus,
Msgr. Jim Fetscher
Pastor