As a young priest, I received two great pieces of advice: The first was, “Father, you give a good homily but try to save a few ideas for the rest of your career.” The second was “Never underestimate the burdens your people bring to Mass. Often, we have little idea of the problems and pains carried by the people who are seated before us on Sunday.
Today Our Lord speaks to us about burdens. We all carry burdens—some resulting from our own sins and mistakes, some caused by the choices of others, and some that are no one’s fault but are simply part of the human life on this earth. When we find life burdensome, often our first inclination is to despair, to turn into ourselves, to brood over how unfair life is, how ungrateful others are, or how mean the world is.
But this attitude only leads to gloom—and this impacts our spiritual life to the point that we abandon our prayer thinking that the Lord is unconcerned, oblivious to our plight. Pope Francis said, “Jesus wants to pull us out of this ‘quicksand’ and says, “Come to me!”
The very time we are inclined to turn away from God, is the very time we should turn toward God. It is the very time the Lord would have us open ourselves to him and entrust our burdens to him.
Whatever our story is, today Our Lord says to each one of us: “Come to me! Take courage; do not give in to life’s burdens; do not close yourself off in the face of fears and struggles. The Lord waits for us patiently, not to magically remove our problems, but to strengthen us amid our problems.
He does not take away our cross but carries it with us. This is what Jesus means when he speaks of taking on his yoke. A yoke is a wooden truss that makes it easier to carry a heavy load by distributing the weight along a wider part of the body, or by allowing the weight to be shared by two or more people or animals. Yokes were sort of “custom made” to be fitted to join two animals and help them work together in pulling a load.
As a carpenter, Jesus could have made many ox-yokes. A tradition tells us that Jesus had a sign over his carpenter shop ‘My yokes fit well.”
What is weighing us down today…this week? What burden do I bring to Mass today?
Perhaps we can make this prayer our own:
Dear Lord, there are many times I feel weary and find life burdensome and it seems as if you are absent and have left me alone. But you invite me: “Come to me and I will refresh you.”
So, I will not run away, not give up, not stop praying, even when it may seem useless and a waste of time. Speak gently to my heart that is weighed down. When the loud noises of my surroundings and the loud inner noises of my fears keep pulling me away from you, help me trust that you are still there even when I am unable to hear you.
Give me ears to listen to you saying, “Come to me, you who are overburdened, and I will give you rest…for I am gentle and humble of heart. May that loving voice always be my guide. [adapted: H. Nouwen: With Open Hands.]
