You Will Find Rest

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent

[The Lord] gives strength to the fainting; for the weak he makes vigor abound.  Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall, they that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.  Isaiah 40:29-31

Jesus said to the crowds: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

Piety

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.  Amen. 

Study

Are you burning the candle at both ends during this holiday season?  You are in luck. The Lord has two gifts for you:  boundless energy and ample rest. Both are in short supply when we are busiest. 

Actually, there are three gifts promised today in scripture – the final being a sense of humor.  Only a Lord who has a sense of humor can ask us to take up our cross daily to follow Him and call his burden light and easy.

Light and easy is a diet.  Light and easy is a steam mop used for cleaning floors.  Light and easy is a low-calorie yogurt.  Picking up a cross seems like anything BUT light and easy unless you have help.  The Lord does not ask us to do anything that he has not already done.  Just like Simon the Cyrenian came to the assistance of Jesus to ease those final steps, the Lord will be there for us to make our last steps easier.

Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a prolific author of many popular books that help explain our faith and its practices to members of the Church and others who have curiosity about all things Catholic.  Lately, however, he also posted several extended comments to Facebook about his Jesuit brother Rev. T.J. Martinez, SJ, in Houston, Texas.  TJ founded Cristo Rey High School and recently passed away after a battle with cancer – a cross that no one would consider light or easy. 

Fr. Martinez was diagnosed with stomach cancer as he was finishing the last stage of his Jesuit formation in East Africa. He had thought that the stomach pain was perhaps the normal side effects of being in an unfamiliar part of the developing world.  From the students, teachers and parents at the high school he founded to all of his Jesuit brothers and friends, no one wanted to believe the news about his diagnosis. Of all people, Fr. Martinez seemed to be unstoppable: a wellspring of energy to all whom he met from former First Lady Laura Bush and bishops to people in the inner city and the poorest places on earth.

I have never met either Fr. Martin or Fr. Martinez yet the stories by and about both men also reveal the combination of the boundless energy and promised rest that the prophet Isaiah promises us this Advent season.

Pardon me for quoting at length.  If you are on the social media platform Facebook, follow Fr. Martin and you can read the whole of several posts about T.J.  For the quotes today, the full text of comments by Fr. Martin is at this link: https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/photos/a.139618381495.120357.46899546495/10152409696941496/?type=1

After his diagnosis, Fr. Martin asked him how he was doing. Here he paraphrases what Fr. Martinez said:

“I just finished with my Long Retreat, and I made my offer of myself to Jesus. In the Spiritual Exercises, the final prayer is the “Take, Lord, Receive” prayer, one of total surrender of all that you have to Jesus: “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.”

TJ had just made that prayer at the end of his retreat.

"So this is the perfect time for this to happen to me," he said. "I was ready.” 

When Fr. Martin asked Fr. Martinez last summer if he thinks about death, his brother said he did.  However, he also said that he did not dwell upon it.    

“Well, Jim, I’m a Jesuit, right? And Jesuits are always given a mission. So if my mission from Jesus right now is to be sick, then I accept it. And if my mission is to die, then I accept that mission, too.” 

In the middle of November, Fr. Martin sent a letter saying goodbye.  He knew that he would not be getting any more calls or messages from Fr. Martinez.  Their next meeting would be “God willing, in the fullness of time.”   Here is what the final message was from Fr. Martinez:   “The last six years of my life have been my best assignment ever,” he said.  “But my next one will be even better.”

Action

May you have the energy to conquer the best assignment ever.  Until the next one.