Extending the Workday

Seeing how we truly rest in the Eucharist

07/18/2024

Mt 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."

One of my favorite past-times as a priest is going over to parishioner’s homes for supper. I started this culinary custom shortly after I was ordained. My first pastor, Msgr. Gaston Hebert, whom I admire deeply, was not a fan of going to people’s homes for supper. He would often say: “John, that’s just an extension of the workday.” And I can understand his feeling of having to work while at dinner, “being on” pastorally-speaking.

But my experience was (and is) quite different. While sharing food and drink, I can forge friendships with my parishioners, and can truly relax in their company. While I was in high school, I worked at a steak house called Bonanza, whereas my friends worked at burger joints or pizza places. When I got tired of eating steaks, I would trade my meal for theirs and enjoy burgers or pizza.

In a sense, I was practicing the same switcheroo for supper as a priest. I eat what you serve for supper at your house, and when you come to Mass, you eat what I serve for supper, namely, the Eucharist. And I am convinced it is always in the midst of a meal where we find friendship and real rest, rather than simply "extending the workday."

In our super short gospel of only three verses, Matthew says a lot with a little. But the focus of this passage is where to find true rest and that real rest is found only in Jesus himself. Our Lord teaches: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” And we know Jesus is nowhere more truly present than in the Bread and Wine of the Mass. Hence, the Blessed Sacrament is simply referred to as the Real Presence.

And this notion of resting at a meal is reinforced by the Jewish gesture of reclining at table. That is, you literally “rested” by your physical posture while you ate supper, as we read in Jn 13:23, “One of his disciples whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus.” What gesture could signify deeper friendship and repose than lying on someone’s breast during dinner? That intimate image is mean to evoke the parallel image of a mother breast-feeding her baby with her own milk. Indeed, Jesus was nurturing his beloved disciple with his own Body.

That is, like I did back in high school with the old switcheroo suppers, so, too, Jesus had eaten other people’s cooking time and time again, and now he was offering them his own cooking at the Last Supper. Paraphrasing our Lord, Jesus says in effect: “Come to me [in the Eucharist], all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” In other words, sharing the meal of the Mass with Jesus is not “an extension of the workday,” but rather when the workday really ends.

My friends, everyone’s chief preoccupation during summer is finding real rest and relaxation. So, some people escape to cooler climates onboard an Alaskan cruise, others retreat to hidden lakes, or shining, sunny ocean shores, or climb to mountain peaks with endless vistas. We all want, and need, some down-time, and at all costs, to avoid “an extension of the workday.” And a good vacation is healthy for mind, body, and spirit.

Nonetheless, I would submit to you that there is no better rest, on the natural or supernatural levels, than when we recline at table with the Lord at the Eucharist. Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote a little book on the Eucharist, called “This Is My Body.” There he quoted Erasmo Leiva-Merkakis, who commented: “The deepest meaning of Christian discipleship is not to work for Jesus but to be with Jesus.”

In other words, we are never more “with Jesus” than when we recline at table and break bread with him at Mass. Listen again to Jesus’ sparse but significant words in today’s gospel: “Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” So, what are you waiting for to invite me over for supper???

Praised be Jesus Christ!