A Sunday Thought to Carry Us Into the Work Week on a High Note

In the past, we've posted many suggestions about how we might profitably spend our Sunday respite from work. "Profitably" here refers to our spiritual life, not our business activity. We're looking for grace and merit, not money. 

Money's good when it comes to this life. No one's saying you need to be poor or barely scraping by if you've got the ability and ambition to build your wealth. Then again, no one's criticizing those of us who might be poor or are barely scraping by. 

My personal experience includes a bit of each. Growing up in a modest two bedroom apartment in an urban setting, by today's standards our family might be categorized as poor. Not that I felt poor, or that any of us complained about our circumstances. I'm just using the standards applied to folks today who are considered "poor." We'd have been categorized as such.

After I eventually married and we had kids, there were some stretches where we more or less scraped by. Looking back, even in "scraping by" mode, our lives were not so bad. After I started making decent money, I didn't notice any great improvement when it came to how we all felt about or got along with each other.

Now that we've saved a little, the material world includes things we didn't have in the scraping-by days. I guess you could say we built up some wealth.

Turning to the more important part of life - the spiritual - that's had its ups and downs too. At some point, it dawned on me that it would be (more than) good to put as much (or more) effort into building and strengthening the spiritual side of things as I did to improving the material. I studied and practiced various ways to do that. Many of these have been included in posts on this blog that include suggestions about about how we might profitably spend our Sunday respite from work. These include:

• - Reading Scripture and good spiritual works
• - Studying the doctrines of our Holy Catholic Religion
  
• - Extra time in prayer and meditation

...among other suggestions.

Indeed, if you're really serious, you're doing all this every day. But to the extent you can't quite manage - for whatever reason - to squeeze in enough time during the week, you've always got Sunday. On Sunday, there's really no excuse for not taking a chunk of time to spruce up the spirit by enriching the mind and the heart.

All of that will help build your spiritual life - but only up to point. In the end, what matters most is our relationship to God. 

Look at it this way: God sent His only begotten Son to live amongst us. In order to make reparation for our offenses against His Father, Jesus suffered and died. He then rose from the dead to give us the hope of eternal life when our lives on this earth are finished. And, in order to be sure His life and teachings were made known to the greatest number of us, He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, to provide the Light we need to know God intimately.

And that intimacy must not be considered something superfluous, or something intended only for saints or mystics. If we don't have it, well, why not let someone who worked all his life to be close to God, help us develop that intimacy. From Father William Doyle:

“Behold I stand at the gate and knock” (Rev. 3. 20)

Jesus stands at the door of my heart, patiently, uncomplainingly. How long has He been there? A year? Ten years? I have been afraid to let Him in.

Jesus knocks: “Open to Me, My Beloved.” My heart has been closed fast in spite of His calls, His inspirations, the appeals of His grace. How long? I have heard Him knocking, I have pretended I did not, I have longed He would go away. My God, how I must have pained You; but do not go away, wait a little longer.

I look out timidly to see who is calling. Why should I be afraid to let Him in? He has come to me, I have not sought Him. What love He must have for me! Jesus, why am I afraid of You, afraid to let You come into my heart?

Father teaches us that it is Jesus Himself Who desires intimacy with us. Knowing this, can we deny Him that intimacy? Could anything be more important, or more desirable than intimacy with Jesus?

If our relationship with God, with Jesus, is lacking, there's no time like the present to get to work on this. Sunday - with the respite the Lord's Day of Rest provides - gives us the opening we need, here and now, to begin to grow closer to Our Lord. Why wouldn't we stop whatever we're doing and take advantage of that?

If we do, we'll begin the coming work week on a high note, don't you think?

Happy Sunday!