Do you live in a hurry, rushing to get everything done? Is there always time? The night arrives and with it the worries of the next day? Is it not uncommon for fatigue to occur? Stop for a moment. Breathe deeply. Silence your heart. Feel the Ruah of God, the breath of the Holy Spirit upon you. Before you continue reading, close your eyes and experience the presence of God. Give thanks, praise the Lord because He is with you.
‘If there were many reasons that made you even cry, the Lord wipes away every tear from your face and consoles your heart’ (Is 25, 8). ‘If many times, due to the weight of tiredness, you were unable to see a solution, don’t be discouraged, don’t give up on continuing to fight. The Lord is the shepherd who leads you, you lack nothing. He takes you to rest and restores your strength’ (Ps 22).
How many times do we worry about so many things and forget that ‘God will provide magnificently for all our needs’ (Phil 4:19). We enslave ourselves. We don’t enjoy life, we don’t live intensely. We even become slaves to the clock. It dictates our lives. We don’t want to waste time and we could be wasting our lives. An example of this are people who die in high-speed accidents.
What is really important to you? Do we not overvalue the relative and fleeting to the detriment of the eternal? To better illustrate this question, imagine if you knew you were going to die within a few days, would you continue living the same way? I would not change a thing?
The Lord offers us salvation freely. He calls us to a life of abundance, fullness, but it is our choice to accept it or not. It may be that we are too busy to realize this and continue living mediocrely, complaining about everything as if God had forgotten us.
Some think they can do everything through their own strength and remembering God and eternal life can be naive and a waste of time. Others do not accept this thought, but through their practice they attest to the same. The saddest thing is that, sooner or later, they are faced with their inability to face a certain situation and become desperate, lose the meaning of life and even fall into depression. If we cannot do everything on our own, we must rejoice, because ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength’ (Phil 4:13). Put your trust in God who can do everything!
Others are faced with fatigue. They realize that they ran so hard to achieve nothing. They deluded themselves into thinking they would save time, but they lost time and health. Work is important, but ‘It is useless to get up at dawn, or delay your rest at night, to earn the bread suffered from work, which God gives to his loved ones while they sleep” (Ps 126, 2) This does not mean that God legitimizes laziness , but he calls us to trust in his providence. Effort is necessary, but without the Lord’s blessing it does not bear fruit: ‘Unless the Lord builds our house, its builders will labor in vain’ (Ps 126, 1).
There is also spiritual fatigue. Just accepting the Lord’s invitation, being in the Church does not guarantee our salvation. We need festive attire (Mt 22, 12), that is, a life consistent with our choice to be Catholic Christians. Our life must testify to our yes to God. Just believing in God doesn’t solve the problem, because demons also believe. (James 2, 19). We must have attitudes consistent with our faith. Seek our personal sanctification and also help others find the path to salvation. We can’t just sit idly by, tired and standing still. While we are like this, others are dedicating themselves to activism in the work of the Church and may not be living their personal lives incoherently. Careful! ‘Many will say to me on that day: Lord, Lord, did we not preach in your name, and cast out demons, and perform many miracles? And yet I will say to them: I never knew you’ (Mt 7:21). ‘Not by God’s will, but by our fault “Many are called and few are chosen’ (Mt 22, 14).
Living intensely, not running all the time, but deeply savoring each moment and achieving eternal life.
Sr. Simone Miranda
Carmelite Messenger of the Holy Spirit