Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This gospel helps us to see that we are not Christians. It is a most beautiful word: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Who of us today are not tired and burdened. No one! We are all tired and burdened mainly because of one thing: our sins. What makes us tired is not loving others. What makes us tired is loving ourselves, looking out for number one in many things, guarding our pride and our plans; this overwhelms us. I hope you have had this experience.
When we love others, we can rest. The Holy Spirit helps us to rest and gives us an awesome peace. You may get physically tired at times loving others as you do when you follow your own will. But loving others gives us an amazing peace and you know that you are not alone. If you believe in this gospel, you can start to see that you are only partially Christian or not Christian at all.
Jesus speaks about a yoke. I don’t know if you know what a yoke is, but Jesus says: ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn form me, for I am meek and humble of heart.’ What is this yoke that we don’t see too much today but was very common at the time of the Lord. A yoke is a piece of wood that unites two oxen and joined by that yoke they will plow a field and make a furrow so that something can be planted. The yoke was used for the oxen to make the furrow easier and straight. What happens if an ox does not want to work, then with one ox you cannot pull the plow.
This yoke that the Lord speaks about is his love. He is telling us something wonderful: with me you can pull the plow; alone, you cannot do it. By your own strength you cannot stay married, on your own you cannot stand your illness or your loneliness, on your own can cannot overcome a drug addiction, you cannot live a Christian courtship, you cannot get out of pornography, you cannot overcome your selfishness. But with me you can do it. Jesus says, my yoke is sweet, and it becomes easy, so don’t worry, I will be with you and together we can.
Today this gospel is impressive. If we are Christians, meaning if we have Jesus Christ within us, we can love our brothers and sisters, we can love anyone. Without Christ you cannot love anyone, not even your children, or their souls, because they become an idol for you, nor your spouse. When your kids kick you in the rear, when they give you are hard time, you will see that you cannot love them. When your spouse loves you and is good to you, you can love him/her. But when he doesn’t show you affection, when he makes mistakes, you don’t love him. If you have Christ, you can love him. When he tells you that he loves you and shows many details with you and is sweet to you then it is easy to love him. But if he doesn’t, you fight all day and you do the same with your children. Why is that? Because you are carrying the yoke by yourself and for that reason you cannot love.
In the movie The Passion of Christ there was an impressive teaching at many moments in the film. One of them is when Simon was helping Jesus to carry his cross. It appears that Jesus is helping him and encouraging him, and is saying, come on, come on, and really helps him to carry it. It is true. It is the Lord who helps us.
But there is a secret to this word and it is given to us at the beginning of the gospel when Jesus is praying: I praise you, Father, for you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have given them to the little ones, to the poor ones, to those who cannot go on with their life as it is. They cannot continue with their marriage, with their ministry, they cannot live chastity, they cannot stop thinking about money. It comes at a moment when you realize you are alone, and you need to be united with Christ. But you need to be little, to be small, which means you know CANNOT do this yourself.
Jesus says, no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. You and I cannot do it. We cannot do anything when it comes to being a Christian. The Son is the one who will reveal him to us, if He wants to show you this tremendous love of the Father.
How is he going to do it? Well, I don’t know but with each one of us it is different. To some he reveals this love with a sickness, to others he reveals it in marriage, to others he reveals it in his priesthood, to others he reveals his love in a word at a celebration, to others in a song, to others in the circumstances that he is living in. The Lord is creative, there is not only one path that leads you to happiness.
There is one thing more to tell you: the Lord wants to make you the happiest man in the world, and he will do it if you let him carry this yoke with you. In that cross that you have he will show you this profound love that he has for you. When you believe this, you will be a Christian. But it is not to believe it in your head but in your heart. And you don’t believe it in your heart, what is the proof of that? You don’t love. The proof that we have passed to the Father is that you love the others. St. John says if you don’t love your spouse with whom you live every day, how can you love God who we don’t see? The Lord wants to give us this grace today and be able to unite ourselves to this sweet yoke and experience this merciful and profound love he has for you.