St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of two basic movements of the will in his epic work, the “Summa Theologica”: to seek the absent good and to rest in the possessed good.
Our wills are naturally drawn to the good, and if we recognize a good we lack, it’s normal to desire it. If we recognize a good we already possess, it is right that we should enjoy and appreciate it. It’s fairly easy for us modern people to do the first. We’re very adept at busying ourselves in the pursuit of goods, real or perceived. The second part of Aquinas’ equation – resting in the good – seems much more elusive to us.
We spend much of our lives seeking after various goods, such as wealth, security, friendships, health, knowledge or holiness. Our work, our relationships and even our hobbies are often about reaching new levels, obtaining goals or otherwise acquiring something we lack. Even on vacation, we can be so focused on pursuing an experience that we forget to simply rest.
‘In our quest for the next best thing, do we fail to appreciate what we already have?’
There is clearly nothing wrong with having goals and working to better ourselves. This side of heaven, there will never be a shortage of absent goods for us to seek. I’ve mentioned many secular goods already; wealth, health and security. But the same holds true for spiritual goods. There will always be a virtue in which we can improve. We can always stand to increase our devotion and charity. We can always move a little closer to God on this pilgrimage of life.
But in all our efforts to acquire absent goods, do we ever take time to rest in the goods we already possess? Are we so concerned with earning new wealth that we don’t consider how to make the best use of what we already own? Are we so focused on optimizing our health to increase our lifespan that we forget to ask what our life is for? In our quest for the next best thing, do we fail to appreciate what we already have?
Learning to rest in the good we already possess is a necessary remedy to keep us from being overly ambitious and to foster gratitude for the many blessings God has bestowed upon us.
The power of sabbath
In his recent book, “The Great Story of Israel,” Bishop Robert Barron associates Aquinas’ “resting in the good” with the observance of the sabbath. Human beings “will indeed seek any number of absent goods,” he writes, “but the entire purpose of their existence is to taste and to savor the good, to rest in what they have.”
The sabbath rest is modeled after God’s own rest. “So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that He had done in creation” (Gen 2:3). This divine rest is not the rest of the weary. God is never fatigued. It is a rest that creates space to appreciate the good. “God looked at everything He had made, and found it very good” (Gen 1:31).
For this reason, a major part of Israel’s sabbath observance included the public reading of Scripture, a re-telling of all the good God had done for them. Remembering the blessings they had already received from God was as much a part of Israel’s identity as the hope for a future messiah.
The climax of this regular remembering and resting in the good came each year at Passover, when Israel ritually recalled how God led them from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. That is a story that the Church also retells every year in the liturgical readings for the Lenten season.
Allow time to rest in Lent
During Lent, we do many things to help us prepare to celebrate the New Passover of Easter, when Christ led us out of slavery to sin into the freedom of God’s kingdom. We fast, we pray, we give alms. These each represent some form of seeking the good – fasting seeks the good of detachment, prayer seeks the good of union with God, while almsgiving seeks the good of serving others.
As important as it is to seek these necessary goods, Lent should also be a time for us to rest in the good we have already received – namely, the great good of Jesus Christ.
Looking forward to celebrating Christ’s resurrection at Easter ought to lead us to look forward in hope to our own resurrection. But consider the goods that we enjoy in Christ even right now: the good of forgiveness of sins, the good of knowing God’s love demonstrated by His sacrifice on the cross, the good of salvation won through Christ’s passion. We have been redeemed from Satan. We have received the unimaginable good of being God’s children, citizens of His kingdom. We have access to God’s holy wisdom to guide our lives.
All these goods and many others besides are already ours. We only lose them by forgetting them.
For catechumens preparing to enter the Church this Easter, Lent is very much a time for seeking an absent good: the sacraments. But for those of us already baptized into Christ, Lent is a time to rest in the good already possessed, to remember our baptismal promises, the grace of being reborn a child of God, sealed in the Holy Spirit and nourished by Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist.
This Lent, as we rightly strive to advance in the spiritual life, let us not fail to remember the great good we have here and now in Christ. Let us remember our story – the story of salvation – and make time each day to rest in that good.
Deacon Matthew Newsome, Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate, is the author of “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales,” available from Sophia Institute Press.