Pope St John Paul II was found him lying prostrate on the floor in his private chapel. Thinking him not well, his guards picked him up to discover he had only been deep in prayer. The guard apologized, “Sorry, sorry. We were worried about your Holiness.” ‘Your Holiness’ is a title given to the pope. The pope smiled and said, “I, too, am worried about my holiness.”
It is interesting to note that both families mentioned in the Scriptures are radically affected by pilgrimages, their annual duty to the Lord. Each year the people of Israel went up to celebrate what the Lord had done in their lives, how He had saved them. They took time to reflect on their redemption and freedom from slavery. Pilgrimages in the Old Testament were a sacred duty. It helped the people to be mindful that they were on a journey and a great festival of the Lord. It was also a time to connect with other families of the faith. It is highly recommended to make pilgrimages as a family as a time to reflect and relax and find rest for your souls. It is amazing what happens to us and as people when we are renewed in spirit. When we are renewed in the spirit, we have reconnected with love and love is the driving force in life.
In the Second Reading, we are reminded of the necessity of this refreshment for the soul so we can know who we really are, that is beloved children of God. To be beloved is to know that we are loved. To know you are loved and accept that you are loved is freedom. Holiness is that really, to know you are loved and respond to it. The more we embrace the idea of being beloved, the more our life takes off. This is what our pilgrimage does. I heartily encourage pilgrimages as a means of understanding God, your family, your vocation as a beloved disciple. However, it is important to also reflect on a daily pilgrimage, that means we reflect where we are going each day of our lives. For starters, we should take time on Sundays and really make it a holy day. Do you know that the word ‘holiday’ comes from holy day? I is true that our bodies need rest and our souls need a holiday as well to connect with God, to be refreshed by to God, to reflect on what our lives mean. That day is Sunday.
How do we spend our Sundays? I truly acknowledge how hard it is to keep Sundays holy. I remember in the Seminary, that Sunday was the day I most often did not complete my regular prayers. As a priest not a lot has changed. It is a battle to make Sunday a holy day, a day to be refreshed in the Lord. Sometimes I feel a whole level of selfishness rise on this day. “This my day, I need this.” But that is because of a lack of trust on my part. Sunday is a battle. Many families admit fighting on the way to Church, children not wanting to go, spouse not wanting to go, however we would be better to battle ourselves than each other. To take the time to ask God, “How do you desire to refresh my soul? How are you going to help me understand that I am beloved today? Lord, give me grace.”
I remember one day in particular on my pilgrimage this summer. I was tired and sore, many parts of my body hurt. My feet were taped up and sore and I was walking up a steep hill. My backpack was hurting me, my food was low, and I even think I did not have an abundance of water. I was thinking how foolish some of my choices were – my backpack, my shoes. Then a moment of grace happened. I thought to myself, “Fine, you can complain about all these things. You are in the middle of nowhere, even if your choices were bad there is nothing you can do to change them right now. What can you change?” I thought, well, I could thank God for all these things and offer up the pain I had for people. I asked for the grace to increase my love for God and people. The pain didn’t go away, the facts did not change, but in love my soul was renewed and I had joy and that day the sacrifices seemed to be a good thing. Love has the power to make profit from every aspect of our lives, even the hard ones.
Do you ever notice how in society there are some people who try to avoid obstacles in their lives and there are others who look forward to them so much they actually pay money to go on obstacle courses to allow themselves to be challenged? The people who try to avoid them, avoid confrontation, seem to always end up in a worse trouble. The only real option is to embrace obstacles in faith, trusting that God has put them there as a means of holiness. We can pay big money to be challenged, and that might help our bodies, or we can accept the challenges that are in our path and have not only our bodies challenged but, by thanking God for them, we can have our souls refreshed.
Right now in your life there are challenges. There is pain. There is conflict. There is injustice. Today, on this holy day, let us ask God to refresh our soul through these things. Offer up in love our suffering for someone or thing. Let us not have this day stolen from us by busyness. We must battle to make this day holy so to have our souls refreshed.