Be fruitful and multiply, Part Three

In the first two posts in this series, we looked at some Scripture verses, as well as a few selections from papal encyclicals , which, in my opinion,  offer evidence that it is the will of God that the population increase, and therefore, there are reasons to be concerned about the moral and spiritual health of our nation (and many other nation’s) declining birthrate.   In this post, we will step back briefly to discuss some practical effects of under population.  (We will return to the spiritual in the posts after this one.)

1)      When a nation under populates, it must rely more on immigration to support itself.  When a nation is desperate for people to support its economy, it naturally becomes easier to immigrate to it, whether that is intentional or not.  In these circumstances, it is difficult to manage who comes into a country.  Unfortunately, this means these nations are more vulnerable to terrorist threats.   One sees this with great vivacity in Europe with the number of recent terrorist attacks in Britain and France. 

2)      When a nation under populates, it loses its culture and identity.    In the first post of this series, we noted that all of the countries on the President’s travel ban have higher birthrates than the United States, and just about every other industrialized country.   These countries have large populations that do not like America.  They deem us as  “morally lax” because we give women rights, and allow gays and lesbians to live freely and openly like the rest of us.  They think we are imperialistic.  They do not like democracy or capitalism.   As their population increases, and our decreases, then their values will take hold, and ours will lose their ground, not necessarily in the truth of our values, but in their living out, simply because we do not have enough people to defend them.

3)      When a nation begins to under populate, it ages.   There will not be enough working people to support the elderly population.  Pensions will decline.   The temptation to euthanize will become greater.  An economy where more and more of a percentage of its population cannot work becomes less viable.   Taxes will have to be raised on those who are working to support the aging population.   It becomes a vicious cycle.

4)      When a nation under populates, it creates a labor shortage that goes well beyond having economic consequences alone.   Less labor equals less capital.  Capital comes in many forms; economic, intellectual, cultural, and spiritual.  There is simply no replacement for a human being when it comes to capital.  A machine lacks the creativity that a human person does.  A machine may be able to produce things, but it cannot design or create things.  Only human persons, made in the image and likeness of God, can create.  When a nation loses its creativity, it not only loses economically, it loses culturally.

5)      When a nation under populates, contrary to popular wisdom, the environment suffers.   Common wisdom dictates that the more population is controlled, the better for the environment.  I do not believe this to be true.  (We will discuss population control efforts in more detail in a future post in this series.)  Think of it this way.  The more people we have, the easier and less expensive it would be to build things like electric cars and wind turbines.   The more people we have, the more opportunities there are for work, and therefore, less travel needed, and less fuel used.  Sometimes, we just have to sit back, and really think through some of our assumptions.

6)      When a nation under populates, workers face severe financial consequences.  With lower population, there is less demand for things.  With less demand, comes a corresponding call for lower production, which means fewer jobs, and fewer wages for the jobs that do exist.  When workers earn less, the standard of living falls.   Savings and retirement goes down, which means people have to work longer to survive. 

7)      When a nation under populates, important societal structures receive less support.   The government receives fewer taxes.   It cannot support the military like it should, and a nation’s ability to defend itself weakens.  Families do not have the support they need.   There are fewer doctors, nurses, teachers, fire, police, and soldiers.  And institutions like the Church have fewer people to support it.  (We will go into more details on the effect of under population on the Church in a future post in this series.)

There are probably other effects that are not listed here, but this should give you the idea that when we do not reproduce as we should, very concerning things happen.  It really is interesting to note that one does not hear of these things in modern popular discourse.  As I have stated, it is really the opposite we often hear, that we are overpopulated.   We see things like hunger, environmental degradation, and disease, and we instantly assume there is an overpopulation issue.   The world cannot sustain itself, we think.  We have too many people to feed.  We have too many people and it is causing the environment to decay.   We have too many sick and old people.

Why do not we think differently?   Instead of thinking this way, I propose we think of these issues another way.   Instead of thinking about there being too many people to feed, think that we do not have enough people to feed them.  Instead of thinking the environment is being hurt because there are too many people, think instead that we do not have enough manpower to build and invest in alternative energy sources.  Instead of thinking that there are too many sick and old people in the world, and therefore, we need to eliminate them, think instead there are not enough people to take care of them, and that, not the sick and old people themselves, is the problem.

I think it is important that we develop a new mentality to the problems facing us in society today.  Man is not the problem, man is, rather,  the solution!  We need more men and women, with vitality and creativity, to address the problems we face.  The problems will not get better by practicing population control.   They will get better by realizing the genius that the human person is as the pinnacle of God’s creation.   Read and meditate on these words from Psalm 8, and tell me afterwards that decreasing the number of these creatures on the Earth will solve our problems!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;
 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortals  that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Wow, what a beautiful expression of the dignity of man.

And we want to decrease their number?  Heaven help us.

Joseph, some have said, was the perfect man.   He was humble, obedient, and charitable.  Whether he was perfect or not, the truth is he was a man.   We read in the Infancy narrative,  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David (Luke 1:26-27)

Joseph, spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.

Be fruitful and multiply, Part Two

In my last post, I introduced the challenge of a declining population, which I believe is at the root cause, or at least contributes, to just about every challenge we face as a society today.   Fewer people means less creativity to solve problems, less intellectual capital, and less people to drive our economy and culture.   If we think of an analogy from the environment, more of the world is becoming like a desert and less like a garden.  When the womb is barren, so becomes the world.

In the past post, we mentioned some papal teaching, and listed several Scripture posts, from the Old Testament and the Acts of the Apostles, which I claim make my point that it is not the will of God that our birthrate be low.  In this post, I would like to do a little more of that, but specifically focus on the words and deeds of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels.   I will present some verses that I would propose that it is the will of Christ that we reverse our population trend.   I admit these are not traditional ways of interpreting these passages, and I do ask for your indulgence as I perhaps gave a spin on these that are not usual, but I would propose they are not in conflict per se with any interpretation that has been given on them in the Tradition of the Church.

Let’s start with this famous line from Our Lord.  “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” (Luke 9:25)   When one person gains a lot of land, typically they take the land for themselves.   Now, a godly person would share that land with others, or at least allow others to live on the land. However, I don’t think that type of person was who Our Lord had in mind when he said this.   It could be said, based on this saying, that Our Lord prefers that there be a multitude of people in a given land, and not just one.

Later in that same chapter (verses 51-55), we read,  “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.  And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.  When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”^[ But he turned and rebuked them.  There is never a problem that is solved by eliminating people, and therefore, having fewer people on the Earth!  This is a lesson we can draw from the words and actions (or inaction) of Jesus in this passage.

In Luke 11: 27-28, we read the following:  While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!”  But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”   The woman was praising one woman who gave birth to to one child.  The Lord kind of implies there is nothing remarkable about that.  On the other hand, says that what is real blessed are the many who obey the word of God.  One of God’s commands  is to be fruitful and multiply.  One woman giving birth to a child, a natural process, is indeed good.  However, what is much better is many giving birth out of obedience to God’s word.   The more, the merrier!

The parable of the fig tree speaks to those who are barren, and the need to be patient.  Fruit will come if we do the right things! Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”   The Lord does not like barrenness in the spiritual nor physical world.  But we should never just toss the barren womb away, or forget about it!  We need to pray, persevere and do whatever we can to make it possible to bear fruit.   More often than not, God will take care of the rest, and bless us with fruit if we do.  (For those for whom he does not, I have some words at the end of this post.)

Our Lord loves babies!  We read further in Luke’s Gospel (18:15-17)  People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”   If it was just one infant, I do not think the disciples would have objected.  But there were many.   It did not bother Our Lord, he enjoyed it.   Babies give delight to him.  The more babies there are, the greater the Kingdom of God shines forth!

The Parable of the Ten Gold Coins (Luke 19:11-26) speaks of God’s expectation for us to multiply.  As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return.  He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’  But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’ ¹⁵ When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading.  The first came forward and said, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.’  He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.’ Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made five pounds.’  He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five cities.’ Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’  He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?  Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’  He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’  (And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’)  ‘I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.  The Lord’s preference is for us to take what we have, or better put, what has been given to us by God, and multiply it.   We have been given life, truth, and love.  We are expected to reproduce.

Here is one final passage to consider.  On the road to Calvary, Our Lord speaks to a group of women who were mourning and lamenting what was happening to him.     But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’  Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’  For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28-32).  The Lord tells them that while what was happening to him may appear bad, what was really bad would be a future world where humans do not want to give birth.   Does this sound a little bit like our world today?  

Again, these interpretations I have given here are mine, and there are other levels and meanings to each of these passages.   However, I hope I have made a case that I think one would be justified, based on these and other passages in the Gospels, to conclude that low birthrates are not in accordance with God’s plan for his Creation. 

Before I close, let me just say a word to those women who like to bear children, but cannot.  It is a pain that I cannot begin to imagine what it is like.  It is indeed a cross to bear, and Our Lord suffers with you.   He does not like it any more than you do.  He wept over the barrenness around him, and the barrenness he foresaw and spoke of while on the road to Calvary.    Your suffering can be united with his, and as we all know, his suffering bore fruit for the whole human race.   Your suffering can likewise bear fruit.  It could be spiritual fruit, and/or it may just bear physical fruit, too, like, for example, if you decide to adopt.  But however you decide to respond to this cross you have to bear, know that God suffers with you, and like how he had a plan for our salvation through the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so the Father has a plan to make your suffering, redemptive, as well.  Grab onto it, and like Jesus, in the end, you will experience victory.

For those who in this situation, turn to Saint Joseph, who is solace of the wretched.  For those who experience the truly “wretched” condition of barrenness,  and for those who perhaps were able to conceive, and chose not to, and now feel “wretched” because of it,  Joseph can be your consolation.  He suffered for Our Lord during his lifetime as we have discussed in previous posts.  Some of this suffering is enumerated in the Infancy narrative, but I would venture there was a lot more suffering than was explicitly mentioned.  Joseph had to work by the sweat of his brow, and because he was not conceived immaculately like Our Lord and Our Lady, he felt its effects.  His family was poor.  I am sure he struggled  to provide for them everyday.  And finally, beyond the physical suffering, I am sure he struggled emotionally and spiritually to understand the mystery that was his son.   To those who are barren, I say, with Saint Joseph at your side, lean on the Sacred Heart of Our Lord.

Joseph, solace of the wretched, pray for us.

Be fruitful and multiply, Part One

I have hinted a few times in this blog that I feel that the dwindling size of the population is at the root cause of so many of our societal problems today, not just here in the United States, but throughout the world.   It is also causing issues in the Church.  I believe that in addition to being an economic issue, it is also a moral and spiritual one, and that is why I feel it appropriate to discuss this in a Catholic blog.   To be honest, I do not hear this discussed much in other Catholic forums.  I think this issue needs to be discussed more in Catholic circles, and it might be good to hear about it once in a while from the pulpit, as well.   And quite honestly, if one hears anything, one often hears the opposite argument, that we have too many people.   However, I do not believe that is an issue at all, and I believe quite strongly we have the opposite problem.

To begin with, here are some facts.

1)      In 2016, the birthrate of the United States was 12.50.    Out of 226 countries, the United States ranked 159^th.  This is the lowest since before World War II.  

2)      Other major industrial countries had even lower birth rates than the United States.   The following notable countries had lower birthrates than the United States in 2016; China, France, Norway, Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden, Russia,  Thailand, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Canada,  Poland, Spain, Portugal,  Italy, Germany, Greece,  North and South Korea, Japan. (Japan ranked 224’th!)

3)      When the birthrates remain real low, the population cannot stable itself and goes into reverse.  This will happen in America starting in the next few years, experts say.  It is already happening in European and Asian countries.   Between what is happening here, and overseas,   I heard someone say today there are 300,000 less Italians on the earth than there were this time last year.  I would not be surprised if the same could not be said about the Irish, the German, or the French.

4)      The majority of the top 50 countries on the list with the highest birthrates are in Africa and the Middle East.    Countries that were on the President’s travel ban rank all have higher birthrates than the United States.   Somalia ranks 8^th.  Afghanistan ranks 11^th.  Yemen ranks 43^rd. Sudan ranks 44^th.    Syria ranks 75^th.  Iran ranks 103^rd. 

If the United States and other industrial nations supposedly have the best healthcare, the best infrastructure, the best food supply, than why are we not growing?  Why are countries that find themselves on terrorist watch lists finding it easier to grow?  I think we have to ask ourselves some tough questions here.   Why is this the case?  What is going to happen if we continue down this road?  How can we reverse this trend?

Before we continue any further, let us lay out some papal teaching on this issue.   Saint John Paul II said the following in his 1987 encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, which dealt with the development of people.    One must immediately add that in the northern hemisphere the nature of this problem is reversed: here, the cause for concern is the drop in the birthrate, with repercussions on the aging of the population, unable even to renew itself biologically. In itself, this is a phenomenon capable of hindering development. Just as it is incorrect to say that such difficulties stem solely from demo graphic growth, neither is it proved that all demo graphic growth is incompatible with orderly development.  

Our current Holy Father, Pope Francis, said the following in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, which deals with the environment. Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate….Yet ‘while it is true that an unequal distribution of the population and of available resources creates obstacles to development and a sustainable use of the environment, it must nonetheless be recognized that demographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development.’ To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues.

What do these quotes have in common?  They both say that growth of the population is fully compatible with development of people, and that attempts to blame overpopulation for any ecological or economic problem is not founded.   The real issues we face today are not a result of overpopulation.  We will examine these issues in future posts, and how they relate to the overall population challenge.

Finally, for now, I propose we read some Scripture passages and really ask ourselves if we, especially in the industrialized nations of the world, are doing God’s will in giving birth as so infrequently as we are?  

Genesis 1: 26-31 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”⁹ God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.  God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 9 1-7: God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.  Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image, God made humankind.  And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.”

Genesis 22: 15-18 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Genesis 26:  1-5  Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines.  The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you.  Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, ⁵ because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Jeremiah 30: 18-22 Thus says the Lord: I am going to restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound, and the citadel set on its rightful site.  Out of them shall come thanksgiving, and the sound of merrymakers  I will make them many, and they shall not be few;  I will make them honored, and they shall not be disdained. Their children shall be as of old, their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all who oppress them. Their prince shall be one of their own, their ruler shall come from their midst; I will bring him near, and he shall approach me, for who would otherwise dare to approach me says the Lord.  And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Acts of the Apostles 9:31  Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Acts of the Apostles 11:24   But the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents.

Indeed, I think it is clear from the Word of God that His people are to be about growth, both physically and spiritually.   Many nations of the world today are just the opposite, as are sectors of the Church.   When we act against God’s will, problems arise.  We will explore these problems more in future posts.

Many of the titles to Saint Joseph in the litany to him are titles that reflect the theme of birth or growth.   I hope to close each of these upcoming reflections in this area with one such title. For tonight, I chose the title renowned offspring of David.   Joseph was a descendant in a long family tree, as we all are.   Unfortunately today, many trees are withering, and being cut down, for lack of fruit.   Let us pray that there be a flood of life and love to rejuvenate the trees of human life throughout the world, so that this population crisis may reverse itself, and the corresponding crises that result from it may be contained.

Joseph, renowned offspring of David, pray for us.

Water (repost)

In today's Gospel, Jesus meets the woman at the well,  asks her for a drink, and speaks to her of "living water".   I figured I would repost this post from early 2016 that deals with the topic of water.

"To give drink to the thirsty" is one of the corporal works of mercy we are being asked to learn and practice during this Year of Mercy.

Water is central to our existence. It is indispensable for living.   The present Holy Father, Pope Francis, said water is "the most essential element for life", and "humanity's future depends on our ability to care and share it.".  Some of you may recall my post on November 29 when the Holy Father was in Africa and he spoke about the need for clean water in many of the communities there.  There are clearly still parts of the world where access to clean drinking water remains an issue.
The late Saint Pope John Paul II wrote, "As a gift from God, water is a vital element essential to survival, thus everyone has a right to it."   He wrote that the need for water precedes the "market logic".  Some natural rights come before any "ism" that might exist today (socialism, capitalism, etc.); life and family are good examples, and right to water is another.  Water is essential to the survival of the human race, and thus, anyone has a God-given right to it, whether that person is rich or poor, lives in the First World or the Third World, lives in a democracy or in a dictatorship. 
John Paul II was influenced by the solidarity movement in his native Poland, and this influenced a lot of his thought and teaching.  It was a movement designed as a response to the Communist government's abuse of human rights.  (We spoke about the issues of Communism in a post on August 8.)  The essential philosophy of that movement was that we stand with each other, in recognition of our common, basic human rights.

With regards to the basic human right to water, we all must stand together.  The rich must stand with the poor, the First World with the Third World, as the issue of getting access to drinking water may be an issue that developing countries may not be able to accomplish by themselves.
In standing with one another, we become compassionate with one another, and this is at the essence of mercy.  So, this Year of Mercy is certainly a good time to try and help bring some people who are thirsty some water. 

Lest we think of this particular corporal work of mercy as merely some kind of environmental feel-good thing, let's remember some of the words of Our Savior.  He said from the Cross,  "I thirst." (John 19:28).   He says to those damned to hell, "I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink."  (Matthew 25:42).  Thirst is a serious matter for Our Lord.  If we do not seek to satisfy His thirst by quenching the thirst of our brethren, not only will we and they not feel good, but we may lose our salvation.

Finally, I want to call attention to a particular group of  people in our own country who are crying out for water.   I am thinking those whom we condemn to death prematurely when we withhold food and water from them.   The right to food and water is a non-negotiable.  That right just does not disappear when we enter any kind of state, even if it be a vegetative or comatose one, or we just simply grow old.   These rights, as I stated, are foundational, from God, and they exist before any government, or any other entity, even a person's family member, can grant it or take it away.  My friends, if we say we have a "right" to withhold basic care, the basic essentials of food and water from anyone, we are setting a very dangerous precedent, and starting down a very slippery slope.  Well, we already have.
Many of these brothers and sisters of ours whom we withhold food and water to  may not be able to talk, but if we continue to do these things to them without repenting, we may very well hear those aforementioned words of Our Lord when we least want to hear it, at the judgment seat, and they will be so awful to hear, and the torment will never end.   This slippery spoke I spoke of could lead all the way to hell for those of us who participate in this without repenting.

Joseph most just, pray for us.

Sunday rest

In our last post, we focused on Sunday worship in the life of the Catholic Christian. We discussed the meaning, importance, and necessity of going to Mass on Sunday.   In this post, we will focus on the “rest” of Sunday so to speak.  We can use that word two-fold to mean both,  1) the rest of the day besides Mass, and 2) to relax, and not work.

We mentioned in the last post that Sunday is indeed a different type of day than the other days the rest of the week.   God rested on the Sabbath.   Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath.   If we are indeed the image of God, then we, too, must follow God’s blueprint for life, so to speak, and have periods of work and creativity, followed by periods of rest.   It is how our bodies are designed.  After all, consider our experience.  We yearn for rest after long periods of work, but after a certain time period of rest, usually much shorter than the work period, we are ready to return to work, or at least some sort of activity.   There is a certain rhythm to our bodies and our lives, inscribed by the Creator.   We honor God by allowing ourselves periods of leisure.  In honoring God, we honor ourselves as God’s design, and then, we realize the reality of Christ’s words that we referenced last post that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  (Mark 2:27).

However, there are some deeper insights that must be made here, that show that the meaning of Sunday rest goes beyond just the traditional (yet still valid) points I just made.  I will use Saint John Paul II’s 1998 apostolic letter “Dies Domini” as reference.

1)      Sunday rest is not inactivity.     John Paul II references Genesis 1:31 where we read on the evening of the sixth day (the last day of creation), “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.”  Then on the seventh day, God rested.  On that day, God was still delighting in the wonder of his creation, like a contemplative gaze.   Contemplation is not inaction, as those who regularly pray know.  When we pray, especially when we are engaged in contemplative prayer, we are engaging so-to-speak with God, delighting in him.   This is anything but passive.

2)      Sunday rest is an indistinguishable and necessary element of our love relationship with God.   This aforementioned gaze of God is a look of love.   God’s is gazing at the beauty of His creation, which includes man and woman.    If, for God, it was necessary and good to rest from his work, and engage his whole self in the love of his creation, then surely it must be for us, as well, when we try to return that love to God.   While it is good and possible to pray always, even as we are in the busyness of our everyday lives, certain periods of time of intense prayer, where we can engage our whole bodies, are necessary.   The symbolism of marriage is used throughout the Bible as a sign of God’s relationship with us.   Those of us who are married know well that we cannot sustain our married relationship if we are always working.  We must learn to “rest” in one another, and enjoy and delight in each other, as God did on the seventh day with us.

3)      One of the purposes of Sunday rest is to remember.    “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day  Six days you may labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God…In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but on the seventh day he rested.  That is why the Lord has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11).   The Lord wishes us to remember what he has done!  This has to be a key element of our observance of Sunday.    For Christians now, this would include not just creation, but salvation through Jesus Christ.  Now, a lot of that happens at Mass, as we celebrate and indeed, represent, the Paschal Mystery.   However,  if Sunday is indeed to be a day of rest from work and an engaging in a contemplative gaze with God, it absolutely would make sense that recalling and remembering  all that God has done would nurture that love relationship.  This remembering can and should go beyond just God’s general work of creation and salvation for all men and women to include the wonder of our own individual creation, and all the “work” of God in our own individual lives.   Again, think about married relationships.  Is not “recalling” and “remembering” how we met, how we fell in love, and doing that on a regular basis,  critical to maintaining a healthy relationship?   We do not need to do that every day, but like we are discussing here, there should be regular periods of time for that.   The same is true of our relationship with God.

4)      Sunday rest must be in God.    Sunday (again, the fulfillment of the Sabbath) is holy.  We are called to rest on that day.  Therefore, logically, we must conclude that there is something sacred about this rest.  If it is sacred, then it must involve God.   It must not just be rest for rest’s sake.  It must just not be for leisure.  It must just not be an escape from work.  It cannot at all be an escape from reality in general.   No, it must be an imitation of the sacred rest of God, who on this day, marveled at his creation.   Our Sunday rest, then, must, likewise, be focused on the marvels of creation.   We must, like God, gaze.   On Sundays, we should gaze into our family member’s eyes, especially those of our spouses, and gaze at their God-given beauty, and the love they have for us.  We should take a drive, or take a walk, and marvel at nature.   We should be thinking about philosophical and theological thoughts, if we are suited for that.  

5)      Sunday rest, in conjunction with the Sunday Mass, should build solidarity.  We gather as a people at Mass, and participating in the Sacrament of the Eucharist unites us to God, and to each other.   At the end of Mass, we are sent forth to do good.  Well, we should not delay!  Jesus performed cures on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6).  Therefore, we must likewise seek to do good on Sundays for our fellow men and women, “works of mercy” as they are sometimes called.  But I thought we were supposed to refrain from work on Sundays!  Well, if we look back at both the Creation account in Genesis, and the command in Exodus, the work that is not being done (Genesis), and the work that is forbidden (Exodus) is creation.  We are not called to create anything on Sundays.   On Sundays, on the other hand, we are called to gaze on creation, not build it.  If, when we gaze on that creation that is man, we see there is a need, we can act, and those are the works of mercy, charity, and the apostolate, as the Pope suggests we do in his letter.   If we do not take the time to gaze, we often will not see the need.   We can see here another reason why we need the Sunday rest!   Nonetheless, we must ensure the amount of time devoted to these works does not deprive us of the necessary time for rest, and if they do, that is probably a sign they are servile work, and not authentic Spirit- inspired acts of mercy.

So we need to keep these things in mind if we are to truly celebrate the Lord’s Day in the manner befitting to God, and ourselves as children of God.   Let us recapture the true spirit of Sunday in our lives, in the Church, and in our culture today.  If we do, we may just experience a rejuvenation in the world of peace and solidarity.

Saint Joseph, who worked hard, but as a faithful Jew, observed the Sabbath, and used that time to gaze on the child Jesus and the Blessed Mother, inspire us to imitate God as you did, and learn the proper rhythm of life inscribed by the Father, so that we may learn to love God, our fellow men and women, ourselves,  and all of creation, as you did.