Spiritual rest vs. physical rest

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Spiritual exhaustion can be more tiring than physical exhaustion.  Spiritual exhaustion means we are tired of life because it’s pretty much the same every day, it’s boring, it’s lifeless and seem to be directionless and meaningless.  I remember a guy who is a friend of my friend who made a deep sigh and said in Tagalog, “Ganito lang ba ang buhay?” (Is there nothing more to life than this?) This kind of tiredness is more exhausting because there is no immediate relief.  If you are physically tired because of a long and busy day in the office or school, you just take a good night rest with at least eight hours of sleep, then the following morning you feel relieved and rejuvenated.   But spiritual exhaustion is different because you get no relief until you rest in the Lord (living rest not Rest in Peace or RIP).

Spiritual rest was what our Lord Jesus referred to when He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) If you find life meaningless and directionless Christ is the answer.  As with most of our problems in life, God is always the answer.  Fr. Jim Lewis is fond of offering this advice to everyone he counsels even before they tell him their problems, telling them, “God is the answer.  Now what was your problem?”

Often times we are not at peace and unhappy in life because we have not yet found our purpose.  Peace as St. Augustine would define it is: “rest in our end (or goal)”.  Of course, our ultimate end or goal is God.  God said in the Book of Revelations, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelations 22:13) Our beginning is in God because we were created by Him and our end is Him since the ultimate aim of life is to be with God forever in heaven.  Remember that it was St. Augustine likewise who said the most famous and most quoted spiritual line outside of Scripture, “Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”  St. Augustine knew that the answer to his restlessness and messy life was going back to God but he delayed his conversion because he was attached to his vices especially the vice of lust.  He told God, “Lord, yes, but not yet” but God gave him a deadline that St. Augustine had to comply, otherwise, he would lose God for good.

“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30) Our Lord does not take away the burden of everyday life in us when we reconcile and become obedient to Him, such as going to work daily to earn a living, but He gives a new meaning to those burdens that’s why they become easy and light.  He told us to carry our cross every day, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Burdens and crosses are necessary.  We can’t go to heaven being a lazy bum, being a couch potato at home, doing nothing and expect to be rewarded.  There’s no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.  We can’t go to heaven if we have not worked for it.  Heaven has a “no effort, no reward” policy as St. Paul has said, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) And because love of God and neighbor are not just nice words or feelings but actions or actions of love.  There is no saint who was not a man or woman of action.

The burden and tiredness of every day work (along with other difficulties in life) can be turned into spiritual good if we offer it up to God as a love-offering much like the fragrant offering of Christ’s sufferings on the cross.  Our Lord did not promise to free us from the trials of this world but grants us serenity during trials through the help he gives in the form of grace to be patient in accepting those crosses.  Dr. Peter Kreeft said when his daughter was hospitalized and was diagnosed with a terminal cancer (but recovered later), “When I thought my five-year-old daughter was going to die, I felt total emotional exhaustion, but I knew there was an immovable anchor at the bottom of that stormy sea. It was He (God). It didn’t calm the storm on the surface, but it held the boat.” As one spiritual writer once said, “Those who love God are not guaranteed with a storm-free life but a storm-proof life.”