The rest that is appointed by God is a combination of self-restraint and remission of debt. This Jubilee is the celebration God wants us to experience. Herod the tetrarch represents the attempts of men to celebrate, but in a way that is completely foreign to God’s plan. Celebration is not meant to be a time of self-indulgence or of incurring debt. Celebration is meant to be a time to receive what we need from God and providence without frenetic anxious activity. To receive the release from all debts: forgiveness – that is the true joy of celebration.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola
We live in an age that promotes transparency and the sharing of information indiscriminately. Good or evil, with blatant disregard for the souls of those who might happen upon it, information and facts are being regurgitated and spewed out upon the face of the earth like some new form of pollution. The industry of sensationalism is creating a thick layer of toxic information waste on the surface of the planet that its poor inhabitants must wade through on a daily basis. Searching for the information we need increasingly resembles dumpster diving. The clouds that store our precious data also allow an endless torrent of acid “news” rain flooding our souls.
Saint Martha
Saint Martha will help us avoid activism in the spiritual life if we are open to receiving the correction of Christ as she did. Activism is similar to the dispositions we see in workaholics, but one is a religious malady while the other is human. Both are similar in that they cannot stand to be passive. Passivity is characteristic of death, irresponsibility, weakness, apathy, despair, etc. The activity of a workaholic is not noble in and of itself, but it creates the illusion that one’s life is full rather than empty. It is based on the presumption that the activity of work itself is always better than not working. A healthier conception recognizes that human life is more than just work and requires a balance of activity and passivity. This balance can only be established by discovering a truly human finality.