By Sister Celine Goessl
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Cycle A July 6, 2008
Scripture: Zechariah 9: 9-10
Romans 8: 9, 11-13
Matthew 11: 25-30
Breaking Open the WORD
This is one of my favorite gospels, simply because I was delighted to retire from full-time ministry in 2004. However, in 2006, God called me back to a full-time job again, when my Sisters elected me the Provincial of the USA Province of Holy Cross Sisters. I delight in hearing Jesus say to me: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus words soothe my heart and bring me a strong sense of peace and quiet.
When I look around at the misery and burdens that many people have on their shoulders, I realize that mine are light and Jesus has given me an easy “yoke”. The word “yoke” comes to mind from early childhood experiences when we saw our Amish neighbors do all their farm work with horses. Usually two horses worked together, yoked with a wooden harness that was put on them so that they could do heavier work without too great a burden on either horse because they had the help and support of another beast of burden.
Jesus speaks about the church leaders of His time having put burdensome yokes on their people that should not have been placed on their shoulders. So often in the Hebrew Scriptures we read about the burden of the law. We know that Jesus came to lighten our burdens. But we say that we still experience heavy burdens today. Perhaps it is because we have placed heavy expectations upon ourselves. We labor under the illusion of a grand future and people looking up to us because of all the good we do. The heaviest load we sometimes carry is the burden of our own unfulfilled ambitions, not only as individuals, but more especially as a nation.
I believe that Jesus is calling us to lay down our arrogance, our material wealth, and our attempt to dominate, viewing war as the one way to be the dominant nation that our ego tempts us to be. If we want to experience the easy burden of our state in life, then it is important that we reach out to those who are weary and burdened especially our troops in Iraq and other war-torn countries. It is not only our families who are weary and burdened under the weight of war, but also the families where war is being fought.
What can we do in the midst of a burdensome and weary life that so many, especially the poor, live on a daily basis? The Gospel shows us the gentle and humble Jesus who invites us to serve Gospel ideals and to shoulder a new burden, that of truth, love and peace. I return to the image of my Amish neighbors working with their horses. It calls me to sit up and be attentive to Jesus reassuring and comforting words: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Let us ask Jesus to place one part of the yoke around our shoulders, knowing that He will place the other half on his shoulders. Then our yoke will, indeed, be easy and our burden light.
