Restless!

The Sunday readings today have a singular theme: restlessness. We have all experienced being restless.  But there is holy restlessness! In the First Reading, we encounter the figure of the suffering, innocent person, Job. Because of suffering, he reviews his life and finds it boring, a non-ending drudgery, a routine that makes one restless. Even at night one goes to bed but finds no rest. What is this restlessness all about? When we become restless, what do we do? Some people are led to vices, some, to addictions. How do we deal with our restlessness?

In the Second Reading, we find one restless follower of Christ, St. Paul. And the cause of his restlessness was his mission to proclaim the Gospel. He could not find rest until he has fulfilled his mission. He even calls it a curse if he stops doing it.  So he becomes all things to all peoples because he is passionately committed to their salvation. All is for the glory of God and the Gospel that he has received as a trust.  Here we behold the holy, the missionary restlessness of St. Paul.

Of course St. Paul is merely imitating Jesus in the Gospel today which gives us a glimpse of a day in the life of Jesus, a clear picture of his busy public ministry. He preaches, heals, prays, and constantly moves around to bring the Good News to people. The day starts with his being told that the mother-in-law of Simon is sick. He goes to her and heals her and immediately she goes back to her chores. Then other sick people are brought to him; in fact, Mark tells us all the town, everyone, is brought to him to be touched and healed by him. He even attends to those possessed by evil spirits. And then the following morning, Mark continues, Jesus rises early and goes to a deserted place to pray. With his tiresome schedule the day before, Jesus could just say, “I deserve a few more minutes or even hours of sleep.” But he does not say or do this because there is a restlessness that wakes him up to seek communion with his father. In the meantime, people are gathering in great numbers, looking for him. His disciples frantically tell him that. Jesus, however, says, “We should go to other villages to proclaim the good news there, for this is the reason why I came.” Again, the primacy of mission! It is very clear to Jesus, he is sent by the father to all villages, or, in the terminology of St. Paul, to all peoples to become all things to all peoples. And thus, the blessings experienced in one village are now seen, heard, and experienced in other villages.

We could certainly say that Jesus was a very restless person. He could not or would not rest. But this was not just adventurism or just plain activism on his part. This was the restlessness of someone filled with mission, someone who communed with the Father who had sent him. Indeed, you cannot stop or tell someone who is rooted in prayer, rooted in mission, to simply stop and rest.  The restlessness will always be there. And yet, it was in the daily fulfillment of his mission that Jesus found rest. How profound that truly we find rest in the restlessness of obeying God and working for the salvation of all.  

As pastor, I am very much edified by people – lay, religious, consecrated people, priests, bishops – who exemplify this type of restlessness. A restlessness that is holy, committed, and missionary. Our world today offers to cure our restlessness. We have so many gimmicks and so many places that could deaden our senses in order to kill our restlessness. But rather than yielding to these stratagems, many of our faithful choose to express their restlessness in their missionary and ministerial involvement. I admit there is a restlessness that must be silenced. But there is restlessness that comes from God which becomes rest only when fulfilled in mission. I am constantly edified by some of our retired, elderly priests who continue hearing confessions, celebrating the Mass, and visiting the sick. When you tell them, “Father, please rest,” they would tell you, “This is my rest.” I also remember Pope Francis. One time, I asked him, “How are you? Do you have time to rest?” His response was: “Well, my heart is still beating. I can still sleep.” I pursued him, “But you are so busy, flying around the world and meeting people.” He simply said, “I don’t know how long I will last, but for as long as I live and I could breathe and my heart beats, I will do my mission.” The restlessness of someone captured by God’s love and who responds to that love with generosity. Was it not St. Augustine who said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee”?

Question for reflection: How can we turn our restlessness into zeal for serving God?

(Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, STD., DD., is the Archbishop of Manila. This piece is an excerpt from his Sunday TV show THE WORD EXPOSED telecast at ANC and JesCom TV.)