Spiritual renewal

For us Minnesotans, summers are often known for BBQs, vacations, and all things outdoors with family and friends. Part of the reason may be the unique opportunities this season offers. After all, school is out, the warm weather makes it easy to be outdoors, and our culture generally encourages people to step away from work responsibilities to be with family. During a recent vacation, I had the opportunity to celebrate Sunday Mass at a small church at the north entrance of Itasca State Park. Sunday Mass is offered only during the summer months because it is intended to serve the high volume of park visitors. This is almost an annual event for me. What I’ve always found particularly impressive is the number of vacationing families who rise from their sleep, prepare the children, and bring everyone to an unconditioned church on a hot Sunday morning. The number of people in attendance ranges from 60 to 110 on any given Sunday. This year’s visitors included all ages, but most were young families. The faith that flowed through their voices and the delight in their eyes at the opportunity to worship God on a Sunday morning was inspiring to see.

 

Isaiah, the prophet, says: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what does not satisfy? Only listen to me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. (Is 55: 1-2)

 

As the seasonal rhythm unfolds, it is important to attend to the physical and relational aspects of our lives that can be neglected during the dreariness and closed-in nature of the winter months. Isaiah reminds us that our spiritual and soulful selves also require ongoing attention. Prolonged or chronic dehydration, hunger, or poverty can make deprivation hard to notice. Our spiritual lives are no different. St. Augustine’s famous line, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” from the opening of his Confessions speaks to that inner need for God that will ultimately satisfy our hearts. The universal experience of dissatisfaction, anxiety, or a sense that something is missing from our lives, regardless of our success or achievements, is the consequence of life outside Christ.

God, on the other hand, seeks to fill the recesses of our hearts. Having been made for God, life in Christ reorients our purpose to what it was in the beginning, before the fall. The emptiness one experiences begins to be replaced by peace and fulfillment; relationships take on new significance; the propensity to strive after worldly things that will have no lasting effect is replaced by the joy and contentment of living under God’s plan.  

 

The hunger for God experienced by those campers on a Sunday morning in the middle of vacation was greater than any comfort or consolation that a campfire, beach, or warm breakfast could satisfy. “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Psalm 42). 

 

With a few weeks of summer remaining, rest, family, sunshine, and rejuvenation are all important. And with this, it may be Saint Paul who says it best: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).