«Come to me, and you will find rest…»(Mt 11:28) You will find peace, an end to the anxiety that torments you. Come: you will find it. Come: set out, seek… Rest is not doing nothing; it is the fulfillment of a quest, the goal of a journey. We can therefore take care of our rest, prepare for it, and desire it. A rest that renews our strength.
These days, productivity tends to be held up as a law, or at the very least as a command. Time freely given to others, time for prayer, time for reflection without the goal of producing something specific, time for play: some people consider all these moments to be wasted time. Yet I exist beyond my own productivity…
The Carmelite saints are precious guides during this time of rest in the heart of summer: Saint Teresa asks us in the Second Mansions of «The Interior Castle»:
«Can there be a greater evil than to find oneself away from home? And how can one hope to find rest elsewhere when one cannot find it in one’s own home? Nothing is so close to us, so intimate, as the powers of our soul, since we are inseparable from them; and these powers wage war against us, as if they wanted to take revenge for the harm our vices have done to them. Peace! Peace! My sisters, these are the words that came from the mouth of the divine Master, and which he so often addressed to his apostles. But believe me, if you do not have it, if you do not strive to have it within yourselves, you will labor in vain to seek it outside yourselves. »
In fact, how often do we find that we cannot find true rest—because we are agitated by our unacknowledged faults or our refusal to let ourselves be moved—even when, outwardly, we have all the conditions conducive to rest? And, conversely, in the midst of a day absolutely packed with unexpected events and setbacks, we experience an inner peace that restores and renews us, simply because we are flexible and open to gratitude.
This rest is contemplative; it is contemplation. All our faculties are gathered together, at peace, ready for service that does not weary but restores energy.
Then we can sing with the psalmist:
«The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.»
(Ps 22)