Feast of the Sicilian Martyrs (17 July 2008)

Today’s gospel reading at Mass is only five lines long, and is one of my favorite of all the utterances of Our Lord.He begins with the beautiful invitation, “Come to me.” “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Now, please stop and let’s consider these words. In the entire history of the world, you will never find words like this elsewhere. What other human being would dare promise to “give rest” to those who labor and are burdened, since that comprises the entire human race. Who else has that power that can belong only to God Himself?

Try to imagine how those people felt to whom Jesus originally addressed these words. They are gathered by the lake of Galilee, either down on the shore or maybe upon on the hillside rising above the lake. And this engaging young man appears in their midst; he is the thirty-year-old Jesus of Nazareth a few miles away from the lake. He has no official credentials as a preacher or a rabbi or a scribe or a pharisee or anything else making him a member of the religious establishment of the people. And yet he makes these astonishing claims and promises: “I will give you rest.” How is he going to give them rest? They are burdened by sickness and other physical problems, by poverty and financial challenges, by the imminence of death and the fear that that sometimes brings, by the problems encountered by their children or others they love. And this Jesus is going to “give them rest”?

Take MY yoke upon you . . . “for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

What is this yoke he speaks of? A yoke is a device placed upon the necks of oxen or donkeys to hitch them to a wagon or cart. Or it is a device fitted over the neck and shoulders of a person to help carry a load divided into two parts, one part hanging from each end of the yoke. The concept of a yoke was often used figuratively to mean the law and the burden that it imposed upon the people. Jesus often complained about the multiplication of rules and regulations imposed by the religious establishment of those days upon the people who had much difficulty in carrying them out. But his “yoke,” he says, is easy and light, and he is very much aware of the burden his followers carry, and wishes to lighten it.

He is meek and humble of heart, he says. Not arrogant, proud, merciless, uncaring, indifferent to the sufferings of other as were so many rulers of that time, and all times, but one who could understand their sufferings, sympathize with them, and do what he could to help alleviate their load.

What he said on that day in Galilee, he says to us today. “Come to me . . . you will find rest . . . for I am meek and humble of heart.” Thank you for seeking God’s truth. God bless you. Father Victor Brown, O.P.