The Ultimate Vacation

Finding real rest and profound peace in Jesus alone

07/20/2017

Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said: "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."

         Summertime is the season for vacations. Have you taken your vacation yet? Some people go to the beach and sit in the sun and read or work on their tans. Everyone wants to look like Fr. John. Other people spend their time at amusement parks, or enjoying the great outdoors at national parks, or watching old episodes of the T.V. show called “Parks and Recreation.” Still others take the so-called “stay-cation,” where they stay home and let their neighbors go away on vacations, because that’s who they really need a vacation from. So often, however, what happens when you return from your vacation? You feel you need a vacation from your vacation! Too often vacations only produce greater exhaustion rather than producing a profound peace.

           One friend of mine likes to say that the best part of her vacation is coming home to sleep in her own bed. Ironically, she finally rests when she returns from her vacation. Vacations are like that story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Goldilocks first sleeps in a bed that’s too hard, and then in a bed that was too soft, and finally she finds a bed that’s just right, and she discovers real rest. We, too, approach vacations like beds: hoping going here or running there will help us find real rest. But at the end of the journey, we need a vacation from our vacation; we still looking for the best bed, the ultimate vacation.

         In the gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples where to find real rest, profound peace, the ultimate vacation, namely, in him. Jesus says simply: “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.” That Scripture is evocative of St. Augustine’s famous, opening passage in his Confessions, where the Doctor of Grace wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee” (Confessions, I, 1). St. Augustine wrote that after a life of painful personal experience of looking in vain for real rest in all the wrong corners of the world, and in all the wrong corners of his heart. He was like Goldilocks, trying one bed that’s too hard, and another that’s too soft, until he found the best bed, namely Jesus himself.

         My friends, where are you looking for rest, relaxation and renewal? Of course, it’s fine to take a vacation to see the world, or get away from the daily routine. But be careful thinking a vacation can promise perfect peace, and real rest. Your body may be on vacation, but your soul (your heart) may still be restless. We may be tempted to find peace at the bottom of a bottle, in alcohol. Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “Men drink because they like the stuff; women drink because they don’t like something else.” In other words, they’re trying to escape from something, or someone! But we wake up the next more with a hangover and we feel we need a vacation from our vacation to Margarita-Ville.  Opioid addiction has reached pandemic proportions in the United States. Why? People sadly think they will find real rest in drugs. Teenage suicide is also growing inexorably and exponentially. Young people party on Spring Break in Cancun, but they do not find the real rest they desire with all their hearts. They still desperately need a vacation from their vacation.

          Our whole life plays out like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a poor exhausted little girl, looking for rest.  We try one bed that’s too hard, and another that’s too soft, until we finally find Jesus, the One who is just right, the only One who gives us real rest, perfect peace, the ultimate vacation. Only when we rest in the Lord will we finally feel we no longer need a vacation from a vacation.

Praised be Jesus Christ!