Homily for 14th Sun OT, Year A
Fr. Albert
St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia
Is it heavy enough for you? Are you weary from carrying it? The weight of your own importance, the burden of your pride. Do your shoulders hurt from the load of vanity, of keeping up appearances? Is your back sore from leveraging control over politics, or relationships, or even traffic? It’s work enough controlling ourselves, yet we so often insist on seizing responsibility for anything but the one thing that is actually ours.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Not the rest of putting your feet up, taking in a view, and enjoying a cold drink. No, this rest, like much of what Christ offers, comes to us as a paradox. I will give you rest, if you take my yoke upon you. A wooden beam, with ropes tied to a plow or heavy cart; that’s what a yoke is. It means work. So what kind of work gives us rest?
“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” This yoke is the work of learning from Christ, learning from his example. The man owned almost nothing, walked through the hot desert, slept outside, and was regularly antagonized by Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, and even the local government. But he tells you to follow his example. He preaches this kingdom, this new way of living in this world that claims to fulfill prophecies, but seems to change everything. “Learn from me” he says. Learn to call God Father, but also learn to avoid being angry at your neighbor, or even thinking about sinning. So, where is the rest?
Meekness and humility. Importance, richness, and power are all burdens, they are external to us and ultimately beyond our control. We sense that, deep in our bones. We suspect that whatever portion of wealth or power we have can slip away, and truly it will. This generates anxiety, a kind of invisible gravity pulling us down, binding us to this earth. But humility lets go of the weight of constantly having to satisfy our pride. Meekness sits out the frenzy of vying for control. Unlike the encumbrance of worldly concerns, the easy yoke of Christ is tied to something we are glad to pull, to carry, to struggle with. It is tied to love, a sense of meaning, and a lasting peace.
Honestly, the reason that this yoke is so much better to carry is that it is the only yoke, the only burden that we do not carry alone. Sure, in the world we can feel like we have help, support in our different trials. But, in the silence, there is a part of you that no one can reach, no one can support. In the inmost part of your soul, when you inevitably face yourself alone, no amount of cheering or friendship or advice can take away the fact that your soul belongs to you only, that that unique soul will experience trials no one can truly know. No one, that is, except Christ. The yoke of the world, of pride and power, is a single yoke. In the end, you must pull it by yourself, and you will be weary.
Listen again: “take my yoke upon you… my yoke is easy, my burden light.” The reason that Christ’s yoke gives us rest is that it is a double yoke; he carries it with us. If we have the smallness, the meekness, and the humility to let him, Christ can enter into the one part of ourselves that no one else can reach, that no one else can support. This yoke is the work of salvation, the liberating burden of caring only about our eternal life and the relationship with God that decides it. We find rest in this burden because carrying it means dropping the others.
And that weight can become refreshing because of what it reveals to us. When we allow ourselves to shrink in the eyes of the world, to become small enough to fit our heads into this yoke, our littleness opens us up to an amazing secret. God reveals to us that he is eternally the Father who eternally has a Son. God himself is a unity of persons, a perfect relationship of love. Since we are made in his image, this revelation, this whispered secret echoes in our own soul, speaking to the deepest fear hidden in every human heart: the fear that we are alone. But you are not alone; do not be afraid.
So, come to the Lord, you who labor and are burdened. Learn from him that God is your Father. Learn from him that your reputation isn’t important. Learn from him just how little is under your control. Discover that, even when we cannot feel the presence of God, the very fact that we want to experience God is a sign of his presence in us.
Become meek enough to go where Jesus leads you through prayer and the Church, be humble enough to admit sin and weakness and the need for help. Take the yoke of Christ upon you, the cross of seeking salvation above all else, and you will find rest for yourselves. The yoke is easy and the burden light because it is carried with Love, it is a carried with Christ, and it is the only work with a worthy reward: eternal life.