The words today from Isaiah and Matthew seem to work at both ends of daily life! A visit to a pharmacy today will present the customer with all kinds of ways to gain new energy or new ways to rest! Isaiah and Matthew offer only one solution - that of trust in the Lord for the help we need. [Those pharmacy "helps" can do just so much!]
The beginning of the liturgical year and the season of Advent, it would seem, should bring new energy and resolve. But, at least in the USA, it comes at the end of the academic semester and life can get frantic as final exams and the demands for Christmas socializing and shopping all compete with one another for the available time in the day. A balance of energy and rest seems an impossible goal! It has been a suggestion of mine almost every Advent season to set up the nativity scene at the beginning of the season to give a daily reminder of the real goal and provide some sense of perspective in the midst of all the demands that seem to come from all sides. Even five minutes' pause before that scene can serve as a way of both resting and renewing energy. We need both. Isaiah and Jesus have given us a prescription. We have to remember to take it!!! MEN