| St Charles Church .org |  |
|||||
| News & Events | Faith | Ministries | Parish | Volunteer | Help | Contact Us |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
This Fr. Gerry Creedon homily was delivered at St. Charles on July 7, 2002
I saw a bumper sticker this past week that read, "The Lord is coming soon so try to look busy". This captures an attitude of American Catholics, which is being prone to a constant state of busyness.
We have a work ethic that will not quit. It used to be that all we had to answer was the telephone but now we answer telephones, answer voice mails and check e-mails. Lake Wobegone talked about the Catholic Church being called Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility. We have this sense of perpetual availability and responsibility and even then we want to distract ourselves with the Internet, television, radio and cell phones.
We just can't get away from being busy. Even when we go to the beach we can't hear and enjoy the sounds of the water and nature because of things stuck in our ears. Our vacations also tend to be busy. I recently talked to a woman who just got back from vacation climbing cliffs in Cornwall. When I asked her how it was, she answered, "brutal". It turns out that often times you need a vacation after a vacation.
Many times we have heard that 'Jesus Saves', but we as Catholics save ourselves through good works and sacraments. We worked out our salvation in fear and trepidation.
Actually this sense of work ethic that will not quit isn't just American. My mother's favorite rebuke, especially for her sons, was "you're lounging around like useless Cadah's." Now who these Cadah's were we never figured out. Were they the British Army sent over to control the Irish and they had nothing to do all day? Certainly when she said this we stopped being couch potatoes and like the bumper sticker she's coming and we tried to look busy!
My Yoke is Easy
We need to hear the Gospel call, "Come to me all who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you. My yoke is easy". What is this yoke? At the children's Mass I asked this question and they said, "the yellow part of the egg". In my last parish, everyone was familiar with a yoke. Farmers prided themselves not on having a Mercedes or Cadillac but a yoke of oxen that will carry the plow. The oxen had this heavy yoke on their shoulders that helped them to pull the heavy weight. Jesus was saying, "My yoke isn't like that, it is easy. Come to me all you who are wearied and heavily burdened and I will refresh you".
I think it is a question of balance. It is good to have a strong work ethic. It is also good for us as Catholics that we know we don't leave all the work of salvation to the Lord and that God's work truly is our own. It is good to have that sense of responsibility about doing the work of the Lord, but we can go too far with it.
People whose minds cannot stop working even when they are sleeping might incur insomnia. It is said that many Americans suffer a sleep deficit. Rest in peace may be offered as solace at the end of someone's life, but have we forgotten how to rest during the course of our life?
It's useful to have this work ethic but at the same time it's useful to let go and to realize that a burden shared is a burden lightened. The Lord wants to share our burden and wants to carry our burden so we can trust in the Lord. We need to listen to the commandments such as remembering to keep holy the Sabbath, the day of rest. Work six days and do absolutely nothing on the seventh day? That usually doesn't happen because we sometimes have to work at relaxing.
I am going through all of this as a way of rationalizing of my month's vacation in Ireland, which I start this afternoon. The Lord permits a time of rest and I am hoping that you'll also take a break and take time to relax and to trust again in the Lord to be recreated. He will refresh us so that at the end we can rest in the Lord.
* * *
or 2002
Homilies
Revised/reviewed July 26, 2002