MAKING LIGHT OUR BURDENS IN LIFE

20151209 MAKING LIGHT OUR BURDENS IN LIFE

Readings at Mass

First reading

Isaiah 40:25-31 ©

‘To whom could you liken me

and who could be my equal?’ says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look.

Who made these stars

if not he who drills them like an army,

calling each one by name?

So mighty is his power, so great his strength,

that not one fails to answer.

How can you say, Jacob,

how can you insist, Israel,

‘My destiny is hidden from the Lord,

my rights are ignored by my God’?

Did you not know?

Had you not heard?

The Lord is an everlasting God,

he created the boundaries of the earth.

He does not grow tired or weary,

his understanding is beyond fathoming.

He gives strength to the wearied,

he strengthens the powerless.

Young men may grow tired and weary,

youths may stumble,

but those who hope in the Lord renew their strength,

they put out wings like eagles.

They run and do not grow weary,

walk and never tire.

Psalm

Psalm 102:1-4,8,10 ©

My soul, give thanks to the Lord.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  all my being, bless his holy name.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  and never forget all his blessings.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord.

It is he who forgives all your guilt,

  who heals every one of your ills,

who redeems your life from the grave,

  who crowns you with love and compassion.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord.

The Lord is compassion and love,

  slow to anger and rich in mercy.

He does not treat us according to our sins

  nor repay us according to our faults.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Behold, our Lord will come with power

and will enlighten the eyes of his servants.

Alleluia!

Or

Alleluia, alleluia!

Look, the Lord will come to save his people.

Blessed those who are ready to meet him.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 11:28-30 ©

Jesus exclaimed, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

MAKING LIGHT OUR BURDENS IN LIFE

SCRIPTURE READINGS: ISAIAH 40:25-31; MATTHEW 11:28-30

How has life been treating you?  Do you find life to be nothing more than drudgery?  Are you heavily laden with the cares, anxieties and responsibilities of life?  Do you feel that your burden is too overwhelming and wish that the Lord would come and relieve you of your life soon?  Indeed, some of us are so weary, tired and weighed down by the struggles of daily life that we wish we could die soon so that we can rest in peace.   If you are feeling this way, then the prophet Isaiah assures us, “He gives strength to the wearied, he strengthens the powerless. Young men may grow tired and weary, youths may stumble, but those who hope in the Lord renew their strength, they put out wings like eagles. They run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire.”

How could this be?  Will we not grow weary and tire of the burdens of this life? In the first place, we must ask what these burdens are that have caused us to feel a load on our shoulders and this heaviness in the heart.  Burdens come from three areas of life.   Basically, they belong to the past and the future.  It is not the present that is difficult but when we take the past and the future together, it is immensely heavy and intimidating.  Unfortunately, many of us live in our past and the future, forgetting the present joys and the moment.

In the first place, we are burdened by sin and guilt.  We cannot forgive the mistakes we have made in life.  Hence, we cannot move on.  The past continues to haunt us and accuse us of the follies we have made in life.  We cannot let go of the hurts we have caused to others, the betrayals in love and friendship, especially of our loved ones and family.  But we are burdened not only by our own sins; we are equally, if not more, enslaved by the sins others have committed against us.  We cannot forgive those who have sexually abused us, those who have caused us to lose our dignity because of slander and gossip; and those who have acted unjustly towards us, cheating us of our money, business secrets, etc.

Secondly, we are burdened by the perfection demanded by Christian life.  We know that we all fall short of what a Christian should be.  We want to live a holy and exemplary Christian life.  But the Old Adam is deeply latent in us and waiting to resurrect the moment we are weary or vulnerable.   So we are beset with our struggles against the capital sins, especially of pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, lust and greed.   We find ourselves losing the battle against our human weaknesses so much so we feel hypocritical, especially when we are supposed to be “good and devout” Catholics.  We are ashamed that we have betrayed Christ.  But like St Paul, the more we try to meet the demands of the Law and what is expected of us, our faith become a religion, simply meeting the obligations of what the Church or the gospel asks of us.  When we break them, we live in fear of God’s displeasure, even punishment.  So religion is burdensome because it means having to do this and that, fulfilling this and that obligation.  Some of us in ministry also feel so burdened having to fulfill the conditions of membership.  With the demands upon our time from all sides, we simply feel like giving up completely and just let things be!

Thirdly, we are burdened by our responsibilities in life.  For those of us who hold responsibilities, the higher the office we hold, or the more people are dependent on us, whether as leaders, bosses or parents, the more we feel the load on our shoulders.  Heavy is the head that wears the crown.  There are always the anxieties for tomorrow.  We are aware that we need to protect and give our children a great future.  We worry about their studies, about their relationships and their health.  As parents, our worries for our family have no end.  Even when our children are married, we worry for their children and our grandchildren. There is no end to worrying! If we are leaders, we worry about how to grow the organization, how to strengthen the members and how to strategize.  Most of all, we have the headache of dealing with difficult members, be they family, colleagues at work or and church ministry.  We have to firefight in managing scandals, internal squabbling, jealousy, envy, backbiting and irresponsible people under us. This explains why people shy from holding office, especially public office because of the undue glare of the public’s eye and the accountability for everything that happens under their charge.  There is no peace for those who hold office, but then this is true for parents as well.

In the light of the burdens that we carry, how then can we be happy in life and not worry so much?  Jesus is our solution.  He invites us saying, “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.  Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”   How does Jesus help us to lighten our load?  Does it mean that He will take away our crosses in life?  Surely not!  He Himself carried His own cross and instructed us to carry our crosses and follow after Him.  So the solution is not removing the crosses and the burdens in our lives.  The key is to consider how we carry them, our past, the future and our responsibilities.

The primary attitude that is required of us as Jesus said is to be gentle and humble of heart.  Humility, gentleness and love are the three keys to approaching the demands and trials of life.  Humility is the foundation.  Indeed, just earlier on, Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father saying, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ^yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”  (Mt 11:25f)   We need to be humble if we want to see life through the eyes of God and to have the wisdom to look at life in the right perspective.

Only with humility, can we see the greatness, beauty and love of God in creation and in our lives.  It is because of our pride that we want things always to be done our way.  We dictate to God what we need and how things should work out according to our narrow-minded thinking.   The first reading invites us to contemplate on the intricacies of creation, the beauty of God’s work, His majesty, wisdom and power.  This is what the Lord says, “To whom could you liken me and who could be my equal?  Lift your eyes and look. Who made these stars if not he who drills them like an army, calling each one by name? So mighty is his power, so great his strength that not one fails to answer.”   Truly, even science cannot fathom everything in creation in spite of all its achievements.  Pondering on the power of God and the transient things of nature, we should surrender and resign our lives to God.  So in our trials and sufferings, we must think that God does not care.  This was what God said to the ingrates, “How can you say, Jacob, how can you insist, Israel, ‘My destiny is hidden from the Lord, my rights are ignored by my God’? Did you not know? Had you not heard?”

Consequently, we must surrender our lives, especially our worries, to Him.  When Jesus invites us to carry His yoke and learn from Him, He is saying that as a carpenter, He knows how to make the yoke fitting for us.  When we carry the yoke, we need to have the right fitting, otherwise we hurt ourselves.  So too, let us trust that God has given the right crosses for us to bear in life.  Each one has his or her cross to carry.  None of the other crosses fit us.  So when we try to run away from our crosses and seek other crosses instead, this is where the misfit comes in and we suffer more eventually.  So to carry the yoke of Jesus is to accept the cross like Him and when we carry them rightly, in faith, the crosses will no longer be that heavy.  God knows our limits and our strengths.  He does not give us the cross without giving us His grace and strength.  When you look at your life, you know that He has always blessed you and helped you, as the psalmist says, “My soul, give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings.”

Secondly, we need the attitude of gentleness.  Most of us are not gentle with ourselves and therefore harsh with others as well.  To be gentle is to learn to love ourselves, accepting our mistakes and limitations.   Pride, ambition and envy cause us to be hard on ourselves.  Perfectionists are never happy because their self-acceptance depends on their performance and what others say of them.  So we need to love ourselves and recognized our human frailties.  The psalmist reminds us that God is always forgiving and tolerant.  “My soul, give thanks to the Lord.  It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion. The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy. He does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults.”  If God deals with us in this manner, then we should learn to forgive ourselves, our past mistakes and our sins.

Until we forgive our mistakes, we cannot forgive others who have hurt us.  A big part of our burden is not letting go of our hurts.  We continue to nurse the pain in our hearts and in our minds.  This is the most unnecessary burden.  It is not life-giving and it is not empowering.  We will not only destroy others around us because of the bitterness in our hearts but we will be a prisoner of our hatred and anger.  So let us know that our brothers and sisters, like us, are weak in different areas and vulnerable to the temptations of the Evil One.  If we do not feel that way, then we have fallen into the sin of presumption and self-righteousness.

Finally, the burden will be light when we carry all of them like Jesus, not just in faith, in gentleness, but in love.  When Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest”, this is a not a rest from our duties and responsibilities, but the rest of the soul, because we carry them without fear of the future, the mistakes of the past and, most of all, with love in our hearts.  Anything that is done in life is still a sacrifice on our part, but it is a loving sacrifice.  Such sacrifices not only give life to those whom we serve but we give life to ourselves. Indeed, with faith, we will be like the Israelites, carried by the wings of the eagles knowing that “his understanding is beyond fathoming”; with humility, we will not stumble because we will walk in His ways; and with love, the Lord will renew our strength and we can “run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire.”

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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