July 16, 2015 Thursday, 15th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Ex 3:13-20
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 their religious leaders’ manipulative interpretation of the Law. Seeking to liberate the people Jesus 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 a passage from the Book of Sirach which says, “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).
“Submitting the neck” is very close to “sticking one’s neck out”, an idiom for taking risks. When we submit our neck to the yoke of God we risk everything, yes even the priceless gift of peace (“I have not come to bring peace but division” [Matt. 10:34]), and the gift of life itself (They will hand you over for persecution and they will kill you [Matthew 24:9]). But any serious wager will go for sticking the neck out for God because what is at risk is only temporal life. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36).
Doesn’t this invite Gnosticism? Gnostics claim that a transcendent world beyond this world is the real one, and this world is but a shadow of it. That is why they hardly rejoice here. But Jesus’ offer of rest is not about being oppressed in this lifetime. To understand the whole point is to draw a line between happiness and joy. Happiness is external while joy is internal. Happiness depends on happenings while joy depends on what lies deep down one’s heart. People are happy if heavy load is taken off their shoulders. But they are not necessarily possessing inner peace.
In contrast, people can still experience inner joy despite heavy load by the lofty reasons that enliven their spirit. People who take up the yoke of Jesus experience inner joy 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 and means to follow that Will. “Then I shall find my peace”, St. Augustine wrote.
– Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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