Finding Rest in Christ’s Yoke
Praise be Jesus Christ.
Carissima Famiglia—my dearest family, my dear ones—”to whom the Son has chosen to reveal the Father”. That’s the first word from today’s Gospel. Hidden from others who are wise in the eyes of the world, we—infants, who, even if we’re really, really brilliant—don’t know a whole heck of a lot. Compared to what there is in this world, we’re pretty small in our knowledge. And yet, “the Father has chosen to reveal” to you and to I, in this Gospel tonight, “the gracious will of the Father”.
And He speaks to us, He who is the only one who can reveal the Father. For no one can know the truth except through Jesus, and the truth is the Father’s love. He reveals to us what I have always found a rather strange message and a challenging truth. Strange, because as I get older, I find it more challenging to speak lightly about burdens. “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens.” That is many of us. Each of us in our way. Some burdens are acute; that means these burdens are really intense right now. And some bear just the same old burden of age, or illness, or depression, or family struggles, or worry, or unemployment, or wondering about the future…all of which are sometimes very heavy.
And He says, “Take my yoke upon your shoulders, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
And I respond, “Dear Lord Jesus, you’ve got to be kidding. Your burden is the Cross. That’s the most horrible burden there can possibly be. Your Cross is not just my toothache, and my bad knees, my sin, and my problems, but it is the pain of everyone. The sin of everyone. You call that easy? You call that light?”
Let’s pause for a minute and ask the Holy Spirit to use this moment to give us a sense of what we look forward to this summer, which is rest. The Deacon this morning gave a beautiful homily on rest. I will use a bit of what he taught. Rest is not what we think of, like sleeping all the time, or being a couch slug, you know, and watching the football game. … (God bless you for being here this evening. There is a really good soccer game [FIFA] tonight. Right at halftime, and I have to zip out to come to Mass. But anyway, that’s not a very heavy burden). I mean, we live in a world that puts all kinds of emphasis on action and, you know, taking control of things—”use it or lose it”. So, we are oriented towards action and distraction. And that leaves us often looking at rest only in terms of being a slug and not doing anything. And that rest is not appealing. Many people want to be doing something. They want a job. They want health. Is that what Jesus means?
The word “rest” in the Scripture comes to us from the very beginning of God’s revelation in the Bible. God creates the world in six days, and on the seventh day God “rests”. Not because God is wiped out by the creating the world. Look at the billion, billion stars. If we think putting together this little planet was tough on God, then we miss the point. No. The rest of God comes from everything being very good and peaceful. A harmony where everything is in its right place. That’s what rest is. Harmony in which all relationships and things are in the right place. But doesn’t that mean, even more intensely, that it is difficult to see how carrying the Cross – the epitome of evil and injustice – could be a “light burden”? Yes, unless we see how Jesus carries the Cross. He tells us how He bears the Cross, ” Come to me… Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” That’s the way that the Lord teaches and how He brings us to our burdens. Our burdens come to us with Him living in us, gently and humble. Humbly riding, as we heard in the First Reading, “on a donkey”(Zechariah), which is a pretty humble beast. Here’s the Lord of all riding as a humble man on a humble beast!
That means that when we enter into our sufferings and our burdens, it’s not with the kind of arrogance that moans, “How could this possibly happen to me? How am I not set apart from the rest of the world to be able to be free from all burdens? Why am I being picked upon?” The response of the Lord is, as we heard in the Second Reading, “Brothers and sisters, you are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit.” So, the Spirit of God dwells in us. You’re not in the flesh. You’re not someone who lives determined by how you’re feeling. You’re not going sobbing towards death, “Oh, everything is bad. My family’s a mess, and I’m unemployed.” Boo-hoo, crying, sobbing, being angry, being a horrible person to be around, because you’re like a vacuum cleaner that sucks energy from everyone into you. Have you ever met people like that, that are so consumed by themselves and their issues that they just drain life into the vortex of themselves …because they kvetch, “Whoa-is-me”? That’s living by the flesh. That’s living as people who are “those who will die”.
If you live according to the flesh, by your own idea of what’s important, then you’re not going to know how to love, because love brings burdens. You’re not going to know how to work, because work is—hold on a minute—work. It’s not play. It’s not fun. This is the way of people who live by the flesh. But you and I, we are empowered by the Spirit that dwells within us. The Spirit of the Father and the Son has come into us. “The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies”, because we see that if we take the joy that comes—and this is the way of saints—with understanding our burdens as being part of carrying the Cross that destroyed death, then we will taste our burdens as Jesus did, with gentleness and with meekness and with humbleness.
I have witnessed this. I saw this in the way my mother went to the Lord. I see that in the way of so many people of faith journey to the Lord. They are united with Jesus. And living according to the Spirit of life within them, they triumph over their burdens. That’s what we were created for: to triumph over our burdens. Not to be people who are so weak that when it gets tough, we leave. That’s the world in which we’ve been formed for. Immediate pleasure now. If you don’t like your family: well, “family are the friends you choose”; if you don’t like your spouse: the law court’s just down the road. If you don’t like your work: walk away. If you don’t like your life: well, have we got a great plan for you. A little needle, and it’ll all end. That’s the way of those who live according to the flesh.
But you and I live as victors according to the Spirit. How do we do that, then? How do we practice that this summer? I’ll give you a hint. If you live according to the flesh, then this summer is going to be totally determined by whether it rains outside or it’s sunny, by whether you have a good time or a bad time. However, if we live according to the Spirit, and we step back and live in the beauty of nature, which will be there, in the wonder of friends who are going to be around, in the glory of having new experiences, we will be living as those who taste our life in light by being thankful. There’s the key. People who live according to the flesh are never happy, completely. They don’t know how to say, “Thank you.” But we do.
So, here’s our summer prayer. You and I, to whom “the Lord has chosen to reveal the Father”. You and I, whom He has shown that He is carrying our cross with us, and that we are carrying His Cross as well. The way is this: pray “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive.” …” Don’t just say the Prayer Before A Meal before a meal. Why not try that before everything you set out to receive? You are going to a movie? “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts.” Before you go swimming, “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts.” Before you go and visit people, “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive.” To see things as gift. A dear friend of mine died saying one word, over and over and over again, “Thank you. Thank you”. And now I know his burden is done, for his flesh has been transformed by the Spirit, and He dwells in the light for which you and I were created. For you and I are to be saints.
Let us be holy. Let us be saints.