XIV-SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

XIV-SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

ZECHARIAH 9: 9-10;: ROMANS 8: 9; MATTHEW 11: 25-30

Once a Doctor said: Your husband needs rest and peace. Here are some sleeping pills.
When must I give them to him? The wife asked.
Doctor said in reply: “No. No. No. They are for you...”

We live in a world where we are not often treated directly for our ailments. We get to the proper solution or treatment may be as the last step. We are tired and weary and go to many other places, but to Jesus who is the real source of strength and refreshment. Jesus invites those who are weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest and peace.
Jesus addresses people who are desperately trying to find God, who are exhausted with the search for the truth, and who find the task impossible. God gave His People basic guidelines for a holy life, but the Pharisees ended up making God's Law inaccessible and impossible to follow. For the orthodox Jew, religion was a matter of burdens: 613 Mosaic laws and thousands of oral interpretations which dictated every aspect of life. Jesus invites burdened Israel and us to take his yoke upon our shoulders. In Palestine, ox-yokes were made of wood and were made to fit the ox comfortably. The yoke of Christ can be seen as the sum of our Christian responsibilities and duties. To take the yoke of Christ is to put ourselves in a relationship with Christ as his servants and subjects, and to conduct ourselves accordingly. The yoke of Christ is not just a yoke from Christ but also a yoke with him. A yoke is fashioned for a pair -- for a team working together. So we are not yoked alone to pull the plow by our own unaided power but are yoked together with Christ to work with Him using His strength. By saying that his “yoke is light, Jesus means that whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly.
When Jesus claims that his burden is light, Jesus does not mean that the burden is easy to carry, but that it is laid on us in love. This burden is meant to be carried in love, and love makes even the heaviest burden light. When we remember the love of God, when we know that our burden is to love the God Who loves us, both directly and by loving men, then the burden becomes easy. By following Jesus, a man will find peace, rest, and refreshment. Although we are not overburdened by the Jewish laws, we are burdened by many other things: business, concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age and a thousand other things. Jesus' concern for our burdens is as real as his concern for the law-burdened Jews of his day.
One of the functions of Worship for many of us is to give us a time for rest and refreshment, when we let the overheated radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord. This is especially true when we unload the burdens of our sins and worries on the altar and offer them to God during the Holy Mass. The absolution and forgiveness which we have received as repentant sinners take away our spiritual burden as well and enable us to share the joy of the Holy Spirit.

To take the yoke of Christ is to associate and identify ourselves with him: our destiny with his destiny, our vision with his vision and our mission with his mission. It is to know that we are not pulling the yoke alone and by our power but together with Christ and by the strength that comes from him. It is to know that Jesus is not just a teacher who gives you homework but also a friend who helps you do it.
There is an old story about a little boy who was out helping dad with the yard work. Dad asked him to pick up the rocks in a certain area of the yard. Dad looked over and saw him struggling to pull up a huge rock buried in the dirt. The little boy struggled and struggled while Dad watched. Finally, the boy gave up and said, "I can't do it." Dad asked, "Did you use all of your strength?" The little boy looked hurt and said, "Yes, sir. I used every ounce of strength I have." The father smiled and said, "No you didn't. You didn't ask me to help." The father walked over and then the two of them pulled that big rock out of the dirt.

"Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." Humility is the secret to experiencing Christ's peace. The more we grow in humility, the more Christ's peace, strength, and wisdom takes over our hearts. Like all the virtues, humility grows gradually, like a muscle, if we exercise it. Lucky for us, there are three very easy ways to exercise humility. First, prayer. Every time we pray sincerely, we acknowledge our dependence on God - an act of humility. This is why St John Vianney used to say, "God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry." It was his variation of the old saying, "Courage is fear that has said its prayers." Second, speaking well of other people. Every time we observe and praise the good points of others, we loosen the shackles of arrogance and envy that bind humility. Third, obedience to God's will. When ever we conscientiously fulfill our responsibilities in life, follow our conscience, and obey Church teaching, we are humbly reversing the arrogant rebellion of original sin. Today, Jesus will once again prove his own humility and love by coming to us in Holy Communion. When he does, let's tell him how much we long for his peace, and ask him to lay his restful yoke of humility upon us.

"Learn from me," Jesus tells us, "for I am meek and humble of heart." Meekness is one of the secrets to experiencing Christ's peace. But what is meekness, and how can we exercise it? Meekness is not weakness, though subconsciously we confuse the two, because they sound alike. Meekness is the uncommon strength that enables us to treat other people with patience, respect, and kindness, even in the circumstances when that is almost impossible to do: First, when they don't deserve it. Second, when we don't feel like it. Jesus was meek, because even when people abused him, mocked him, tortured him, unjustly condemned him, and lied about him, he never lost his cool. He never lashed out at others to get back at them or to put them in their place. Even when he criticized the Pharisees, he did so out of love, trying to convince them to change the direction of their lives. And as he hung on the cross, he didn't condemn or disdain them, he forgave them. When we follow his example of meekness, it allows Christ's peace to spread in our hearts, because it frees us from being infected by the anger and pettiness oozing out of other people's selfish hearts.

Liberty comes through being yoked with Christ. We should never forget that we are yoked with Christ. To this end, it helps to start each day with a prayer like this: “Lord, help me to remember that there is no problem I am going to face today that you and I together cannot handle.” This is how the yoke becomes easy and the burden light.