Dear Bunglehorn,

Apropos this Easter Sunday, on the day the Son of Man arose from three days rest, a day of celebration in the Enemy’s camp, let us reflect for a moment on rest and unrest. Rest is leisure, peace, solitude, quiet. It is a time man unwinds, chills out and recharges his batteries. How important is rest to a man’s soul? Sleep deprivation is an interrogation tactic; will disrupting his rest help us in our battle?

Let’s begin by looking at the nature of physical motion observed by Sir Isaac Newton. What can physical laws reveal in a battle for spirituality?

We see both a prediction of objects at rest and a prediction of objects in motion. They maintain their state unless something redirects them. How can we be an “unbalancing force?”

How can we redirect the culture toward us? Fight harder? Appeal to the masses?

What actions might we take to force someone our way? From what position should we act?

The Mind & Body Connection

Many psychologists have accepted a connection between the human mind and the human body. The human person is described as having psychosomatic unity (psyche mind and soma body) or a connection between the body and the mind. The common doctor of the Enemy’s Church, Thomas Aquinas, taught this nature with Biblical support, as have countless others, including Pope John Paul II (The Acting Person, Ch. 5). Both are interconnected, so when the mind is ill, the body may become ill. Psychological studies show a correlation between pessimism and physical illness. Bringing the mind and body into harmony has been a goal of ancient pagans, early Christians, Buddhists and new age mystics alike. The holistic understanding may be difficult to quantify, yet the idea has virtually universal acceptance.

We see the reverse affect as well. Notice how a humble man manipulates his body according to the humility & servility of his mind during worship. He bows his head, closes his eyes, bows his torso inward to clasp his hands in prayer. He genuflects, he kneels, even prostrates himself on the ground, submitting himself completely to his Lord. He makes the Sign of the Cross over his head and heart. He’s positioning his body in hopes of positioning his mind. If it isn’t for our incessant distractions, his mind and body might effortlessly and naturally align.

It should then follow that harming the body will harm the mind. I don’t mean forms of corporal mortification and fasting that discipline the mind and build longing in the spirit. I mean the over-stimulation of the senses, the deprivation of peace, quiet and solitude. We all know what happens to a person that doesn’t rest well. An ongoing lack of physical rest hurts both the body and mind. A damaged psyche opens doors for you and I.

The Speed of Modern Life

Extra-curricular activities are healthy for the mind and the body. But as with any good thing, there is an excess. Consider the busyness of today’s family. Our work is easier when a soccer mom fills her week shooing her chicks between baseball, basketball, softball, football, karate, gymnastics and piano and dancing lessons. Both parents commute further and work longer for the bigger house and better schools and big box shopping in exurbia. Is it any wonder church attendance is down?

Ever since the Industrial Age, humans have found reasons to work and play deep into the night. The invention of a Third Shift, aptly called the Graveyard, expanded the engine of commerce. From this, retail, service and entertainment businesses kept their doors open all night. First were the diners and lonely motel clerks in cities and along the new Interstate Highway System that connected people near and far. Then came the “convenience” stores followed by home improvement stores, grocery chains and mega-low-marts that didn’t particularly need to be open all night. The best MBA minds realized these stores incurred constant costs. They are inhabited throughout the night with stock clerks and the building mortgage isn’t cut in half just because the store is closed at night. Why limit revenue generation to daytime? The all-night convenience store isn’t immoral persay, but its convenience allows people to easily put off rest. One can easily make a midnight run for beer or bread or milk.

What does it do to a human’s mind when it’s body is always on the go? With no balance, these activities, or their collective lifestyle, can become a kind of religion in themselves. Such a full calendar leaves no time for reflection. It may even allow pesky problems to fester. Without proper rest, the body and spirit become weak and disoriented. If we can diorient men from the Enemy, they’ll enter a state of sin. Therefore, for us to win their rest eternal, whenever possible, we ought to invoke a state of unrest.

Biblical Basis for Rest

The Enemy calls on man to rest their minds and their bodies. His Bible offers many examples of the power of rest. Amid his fear and despair for the Israelites, Elija went into the desert and rested his body for 40 days and 40 nights (1 Kings 19:1). At the behest of an angel while he slept, he nurtured his body with food and water, for strength and clarity. (Ever notice how angels, the Enemy’s messengers, tended to visit their subjects at rest, in their dreams?) So too did Jesus rest for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness only to be tempted by our Holy Father below (Mat 4:1).

And of course there is the Enemy’s commandment to keep the Sabbath sacred (Exodus 20:8-11 & Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Man is called to put aside worldly matters and to give praise to the Enemy, just as the Enemy rested on the 7th day of creation
Genesis 2:2-3.

Unfortunately, some of the Church’s scholars have noted this divine wisdom. Pope John Paul II reinforces the need to keep the Sabbath in his Apostolic Letter, Dies Domini:

The alternation between work and rest, built into human nature, is willed by God himself, as appears in the creation story in the book of Genesis (cf. 2:2-3; Ex 20:8-11): rest is something “sacred,” because it is man’s way of withdrawing from the sometimes excessively demanding cycle of earthly tasks in order to renew his awareness that everything is the work of God. There is a risk that the prodigious power over creation that God gives to man can lead him to forget that God is the Creator upon whom everything depends. It is all the more urgent to recognize this dependence in our own time, when science and technology have so incredibly increased the power which man exercises through his work.
Pope John Paul II
Dies Dominis (#65)

By their own admission, rest connects man with the Enemy. This alone is reason to disrupt it! Consider what others in the Enemy’s camp say about the cycle of work and rest…

“The urgency of important and complex missions in the service of the Church” should be harmonized with “solitude” and “quiet.”
Pope Benedict I

 

Guard against the dangers of excessive activity. Too many concerns can lead to hardness of heart, as well as suffering of the spirit and loss of intelligence.
Pope Benedict XVI quoting St. Bernard

The Meaning of Time

The Enemy’s Bible and Church scholars touch on another secret. Cycles of rest and unrest reveal a meaning of Time. Rest on the Sabbath, the Resurrection celebrated principally through the Eucharist, resets a person’s clock so to speak. People wind down, accept closure and prepare for a new beginning. “In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God,” (CCC#2175). The same can be said about the cycles of feast and fasting, celebrations of the Enemy’s work and gifts of the “Holy Spirit.” In these cycles, man gathers a sense of the everlasting. You can read more of the Enemy’s field manual on the primacy of prayer and contemplation.

With a better understanding of the Enemy’s intention behind the cycles of work and rest, a preparation of eternal rest in Him, be mindful of ways you can promote unrest within your patient.

Warmest Regards,
Wigglebrick

2 Comments to “Theology of Unrest”

1. 1

   Hey Fellas, I’m conducting research on my patient and convinced her to adopt polyphasic sleep patterns. I’m hoping shorter sleep cycles will short-circuit her body’s soul connection. No strong data yet. Will keep you posted.

   Flubwits
   April 25th, 2007 @ 10:54 AM

2. 2

   […] for man today than for his industrial and agrarian ancestors (we’ve discussed this before, see Theology of Unrest). Convenience and materialism compel people to fill their lives with stuff, they’re always on the […]

   The Wigglebrick Intercepts - Catholic Epistolary Blog » Mercy and Web Permanence
   August 15th, 2007 @ 1:37 PM

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