July 14, 2016 Thursday, 15th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Is 26: 7-9. 11. 16-19
Gospel: Mt 11:28–30
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For my yoke is good and my burden is light.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel
in the Assimilated
Life Experience)
The people in Jesus’ time suffered under the heavy yoke of the burdensome interpretations of the Law by their religious leaders. Jesus described these religious leaders this way: “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4). It was from this burden that Jesus sought to liberate the people when he said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest.” To his listeners it was like hearing an echo of these verses from Scriptures: “Come aside to me, you untutored and take up lodging in the house of instruction. How long will you be deprived of wisdom’s food? Submit your neck to her yoke that your mind may accept her teaching” (Sirach 51:23-26).
The source of our burdens may be different these days but definitely we do have our own share of life’s harshness. Jesus extends to us the same invitation to find rest by carrying his yoke. This yoke is the cross he was referring to when he said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Lk. 9:23). For all practical purposes this means bearing salvific sufferings and not the sufferings that result from our vices. But how can Jesus’ yoke offer rest when a yoke is a yoke by any other name?
Answering this question requires drawing a line between joy and happiness. One may not be happy until the cross is taken away. But he can still experience joy if he has lofty reasons for enduring the burden. People who take up the yoke of Jesus experience inner joy despite the weight because of their desire to do God’s Will. St. Augustine found extreme joy in following God’s Will despite the troubles it brought to his life. He prayed for two things: that God manifested to him His Will, and that God gave him the ways to obey.
When we nurture the desire to do God’s will, we find peace. In “Epistulae ad Lucilium” Seneca wrote: “The man who does something under orders is not unhappy: he is unhappy who does something against his will.” The marching order to carry our crosses is not what makes our lives miserable but the carrying of these crosses against our will! -(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM., MMExM., REB., Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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