“I am just too tired.” I can’t remember how many times I’ve said this in my life. I noticed that I’ve said this more often in the past two years. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, we all need to rest sometimes. 

Are you exhausted? 

God invites you to enter His rest. 

God’s rest is not a regimen or an activity. It’s a place. 

A place where we can unload. A place where we can detoxify. A place where we can be safe. 

Entering this place is letting go and letting God. Leaving God out of the picture and trying to do everything on our own makes us tired and angry when we fail and make mistakes. But people who lean on God enter His rest and can enjoy their lives, no matter what comes their way.

Jesus said, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.” 

Enter into God’s rest today. Randy Borromeo (randy.b@svrtv.com)

reflect

Resting in God doesn’t mean we stop working. It means we stop worrying and allow Him to control our lives.

Dear God, thank You for the invitation to enter into Your rest. Give us the grace to trust You even while we let You take control of our lives. We declare that everything will be alright. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Saint Anthony, abbot, pray for us.

Choices, choices, choices—we face them every day. People will remember us by the choices we make. At the same time, our choices will determine the fruits that we bear in our lives. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews exhorts us to be obedient because obedience is at the heart of the call to be a disciple of Jesus. This is essential to our faith. May we grow deeper in faith and be obedient to God.

¹ Let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed. ² For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did. But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened. ³ For we who believed enter into that rest, just as he has said: As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest,” and yet his works were accomplished at the foundation of the world. ⁴ For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works; ⁵ and again, in the previously mentioned place, They shall not enter into my rest. ¹¹ Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience. 

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 78:3, 4, 6-7, 8

R: Do not forget the works of the Lord! 

³ What we have heard and know, and what our fathers have declared to us, ⁴ we will declare to the generation to come: The glorious deeds of the Lord and his strength. (R) ⁶ That they too may rise and declare to their sons ⁷ that they should put their hope in God, and not forget the deeds of God but keep his commands. (R) ⁸ And not be like their fathers, a generation wayward and rebellious, A generation that kept not its heart steadfast nor its spirit faithful toward God. (R)

Gospel | Mark 2:1-12

St. Anthony of Egypt, whose feast we celebrate today, is known as the father of monasticism. He left the city life to embrace the solitude of the desert, so he may clearly hear and understand the Word of God for him. Like Saint Anthony, may we recognize that there will be times when we need to dispense with the busyness of the world and focus on God’s Word. Let us set aside times of quiet daily to listen to the Holy Spirit.

Gospel Acclamation

A great prophet has arisen in our midst and God has visited his people.

¹ When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. ² Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. ⁴ Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, ⁷ “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” ⁸ Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”—¹¹ he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” ¹² He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read MATTHEW 21 - 24 today.

Yesterday, in the healing of the leper, we saw that Jesus becomes indignant when what was originally created beautiful becomes corrupted and disfigured. We also learned that sin corrupts and ravages the image of God within man and woman. Today, the healing of a paralyzed man signals to us a vivid image of how sin disfigures our humanity.

Notice that in the Gospel, Jesus healed the man from his sinfulness first: “Son, your sins are forgiven” (v. 5) before healing his physical malady, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home” (v. 11). While we are not making a direct correlation with physical sickness and sinfulness (which was the prevalent notion during Jesus’ time), the man carried by four men on a stretcher can be an image of what sin does to the human person. When sin takes hold of us, we are virtually paralyzed as well.

Just as the man was carried around by others, a sinner likewise is powerless, swayed, and carried around by the seduction of sin. Like a paralyzed man on a stretcher, a man held by the bondage of sin is unfree. He cannot direct his life by his own power because sin has darkened his vision and weakened his volition. A sinner actually thinks he is free, as he does anything that he likes. But the fact that he cannot say no to his likes is a testament that he is unfree and chained.

Like the paralyzed man in the Gospel, who was ignored and avoided as a public sinner, sin “isolates” the individual in the cold of his selfish preoccupation. In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Satan is portrayed as alone and buried in cold ice. It is no accident that at the center of the word sin is the letter “I.” Fr. Joel Jason

reflection questions

What sin seduces you and carries you around without purpose and direction? What mat of sin are you lying on, isolating you from the rest?

Set me free, O Lord, and break the chains of isolation within me. Amen.

Today, I pray for: __________________________________________