Rest

Homily for Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews focuses on one word, the word “rest.” The author of this text uses the word in three different ways.

First the author uses the term in terms of what we all hope for; namely, eternal rest. The author goes on to say that we have all received the Good News that all who believe that Jesus is the Son of God will experience eternal rest or eternal peace with God.

Then the author uses the term “rest” as a synonym for the Promised Land, that which the freed Israelites had hoped to inherit after they were released from the slavery of Egypt. The author maintains that they did not enter into the promised land because of their rebellion against Moses and God of which we heard in yesterday’s reading from this letter.

Finally, the author speaks of “rest” as it is used in the book of Genesis – God rested on the seventh day which came to be known as the Sabbath.

By using the word “rest” in three different ways, the author wishes to make the point that while those who have come before us failed in their attempt to find their rest because of their hardened hearts, we should not despair of finding our rest in the Lord. We will do this if we, unlike our ancestors who wandered in the desert for forty years, do not give ourselves over to the sin of disobedience. The responsorial psalm also warns us to remember what God has done for us and place our hope in God.

The Gospel text for today emphasizes the role of Jesus in saving us from the disobedience of our ancestors, the children of Israel. The scribes of Israel called Jesus a blasphemer for telling the paralytic that his sins are forgiven. Jesus, the very personification of God’s mercy, doubles down on his claim that God forgives our sins through him by healing the paralytic so that he can walk again. Jesus is our hope for eternal rest. Through his redemptive suffering and death, Jesus has granted us access to God’s mercy and forgiveness which we all need if we are to enjoy eternal rest.

At each Eucharist we encounter the mighty deeds of the Lord. We break open the Scriptures and remember the deeds that God has done for us, and then we break the bread that has become for us the foretaste of our eternal rest.