Come away to a deserted place all by youselves and rest a while (Mark 6: 31)

We admire a tree's blossoms and leaves and look forward to its fruits, but there are also the roots from which the tree draws life. It is the same for each one of us. We are called to give, to love, to serve, to create brotherly relationships, to work to build a more just world. But we need roots, which means the inner life of union with God, our own personal relationship of love with Him which motivates and nourishes the life of brotherly communion and our commitment in society.

It is equally true that love for others nourishes, in turn, our love for God and makes it more lively and tangible, just as it is true that light and warmth, received through the leaves, strengthen the roots. Love for God and for neighbour are expressions of the same love. Our interior life and our exterior life are rooted in each other.

Nonetheless, the Word of Life chosen for this month invites us to cultivate our interior life with special care, especially through recollection, solitude and silence, so as to go into depth in our personal relationship with God, Jesus says to us what he said one day to his disciples, seeing that they were tired out because they had given so much of themselves to others.

Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.

From time to time Jesus too withdrew from his many activities. There were the sick to be healed, crowds to instruct and to feed, sinners to be converted, poor people to help and console, disciples to guide...

Yet, even though everyone was looking for him, he knew how to withdraw, away from the towns, up on the mountainside, to be alone with the Father (Mk 1: 35; Lk 5: 16). It was like going home. In his personal and silent conversation with the Father he found the words that he would then say to his followers, he understood his own mission better, he regained strength to face the new day. He wants us to do the same:

Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.

It is not easy to stop. Sometimes we are caught up in a cycle of work and activity, like a machine of which we have lost control. Society often dictates a frenetic pace of life: we must always produce more, make progress in our career, come out on top... It is not easy to face solitude and silence inside and outside us.

Yet these are the very conditions needed to hear the voice of God, to compare our life with His Word, to cultivate and deepen our relationship of love with Him. Without this inner resource we are in danger of getting nowhere and our being so busy can remain fruitless.

There is a need then for a period, even brief, of physical and mental rest. This will also avert stress. It may seem to be a waste of time, yet here too we must trust Jesus's invitation:

Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.

Jesus took the disciples away with him by themselves, so that they could be with him and find rest with him: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest... and you will find rest for your souls" (Mt. 11: 28-29). The best rest is to take some time to 'stay' with Jesus, to live in grace, in love, allowing ourselves to be shaped and guided by his words.

In particular, before we pray, which is a special time for 'being with Jesus', it is good to detach ourselves from everything, to rest a little, recollect ourselves and enter into the secrecy and silence of our inner room. (Mt. 6: 6) We should not limit the time spent in prayer. The more time we spend in prayer the more we gain. It will be like plunging ourselves into union with God where we will find peace. We will then be able to have an uninterrupted conversation with Him, and be in a constant state of recollection, even outside the time set aside for prayer. This has been my experience over many years.

Once I wrote:

Lord! In my heart I hold you, the treasure that must shape every move I make. Follow me, watch over me, yours is my loving, rejoicing and suffering. May no one catch even a sigh. Hidden in your tabernacle I live, I work for all. May the touch of my hand be yours, only yours be the tone of my voice.

Even when it is not possible for us to distance ourselves physically from the noise and turmoil of the world that surrounds us, we can go into the depths of our hearts, in search of God.

He is always there. Sometimes it is enough to say: "For you, Jesus," before every activity or before a meeting. And this too is a way of going away by ourselves and giving a supernatural motive and a supernatural tone to everything we do.

We should also offer him every suffering, great or small. Our communion with him will become more perfect. Our physical condition will also benefit and we will be able to go back to our activities refreshed, so as to love with greater energy.