WHAT DOES SATURDAY MEAN?
(Saturday, December 28)
For Orthodox Christians, a Saturday is not a day of not working, as the Sabbath was in the times of the “Old” Testament. Nonetheless, it is the seventh day of the week, when we remember gratefully God’s “rest,” with which He dignified us on the Seventh Day. His own “rest” was dignifying for us, because it was a sign of His trust in us, human beings, whom He had entrusted on the Sixth Day with His kind of work; with the creative work to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen 1:28) God “rested” from His creative work, henceforth giving us the room or the freedom to be and to act in His image and likeness.
The “rest” with which God rested did not mean that God stopped working, as the Son of God testifies: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” (Jn 5:17) God continues to “work” on and with His creation, in His rest. His Spirit continues to “hover” over the sometimes-turbulent “waters” of our material world. And God sends us His only-begotten Son, Who comes to show us how to (re-)enter into His rest, even while we “work,” – not in the not-godly way we slipped into, but in His rest.
What does this mean? This means a new way of being, in the peace from above, whether at work, at play, or at rest. Regardless of what we are doing or not doing, we are called always to be “laboring” for the nourishment of His grace. “Do not labor for the food which perishes,” the Lord says to us, “but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (Jn 6:27) In practical terms, this means we are to seek to have our every moment, every activity, every conversation, every silence, every thought, flavored with the “salt” of God’s grace. We need not be discouraged, because we are far from perfect, and slip away from this purpose time and again throughout our day. But we begin from our waking moment, with a simple, heartfelt prayer, and a willingness to do God’s will in the upcoming day. We might engage in some brief “light reading,” that is, reading that brings us light and not darkness, before we begin scrolling down into some of the “dark reading” that is always available in our phones.
God meets us halfway, whenever we have the willingness to (re)turn to Him. This Saturday morning let me not hesitate to begin my day as His dignified and trusted worker-among-workers, (re)turning to Him in simple heartfelt prayer throughout my day, so I don’t miss out on participating in, and passing on, His peace-creating energies.
