Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

St Bakhita, feast day February 8

 Lectionary: 328

The Apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” 
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.

As I write this post two weeks in advance, we're expecting a major snowfall beginning this afternoon and continuing into Monday. I'm pretty sure there's enough food in the house to sustain six friars until the middle of next week. We'll have time to "come away by ourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile." 

Personally, I don't mind the opportunity, although I don't think I am overworked since retiring from the VA chaplaincy almost four years ago. 

The point of retiring, whether to bed each night, to vacation periodically, or from the American workforce, is "to be with him," as we heard in Mark 3:13:

He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve [whom he also named apostles] that they might be with him.... 

Retiring may not seem extraordinary, but the opportunity to be with him certainly is. Though many are invited, it is an enormous privilege shared by too few. That we should be with him 24/7/365 makes it no less extraordinary. The Virgin Mary teaches us that, for "she pondered these things in her heart" even as she went about the familiar business of changing diapers and preparing meals. God was ever in her heart.

A fellow once told me that he failed to think of God all the time. I asked him, "Do you ever forget that you're a married man?"
"Of course not!" he said.
"Neither do you forget that you belong to the Lord. If it's not the center of your attention every moment as you file papers, and sign contracts, and do whatever you do for a living; you still know that you belong to the Lord through your Catholic faith and practice."

We practice our faith and that is a constant. Our daily and weekly prayers, our sacraments and devotions, our scapulars, medals, and pocketed rosaries prevent us from wandering into sinful territory. They direct us toward things worthy of our attention. And bringing our attention to matters of this world, we bring the Lord's presence with us. 

That's at least a major part of what Jesus intended when he chose his apostles and sent them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Mark 3:14-15