Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introduction

Today’s readings remind us:

We are not alone in our lowest moments, whatever brought us to them.

God the creator and God the redeemer invite us into relationship and provide strength along life’s journey.

During this Eucharist let us open our hearts for His presence and rest He brings.

Homily

Today it seems that we have a deeply comforting message from the Lord, He speaks directly to you and me:

Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. — Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

But there is something which is off?

Can you see that?

Is it not a little bit strange that Jesus’ idea of getting us to rest in Him involves putting on a yoke?

We do not need to have PHD in farming to know that a yoke was not created for rest.

It literally has nothing to do with rest at all.

Being invited by Jesus would be more to hear from him something like this:

Take off that yoke you’re wearing — you don’t need it anymore!

Doesn’t that feel great? Now run… be free!

But Jesus doesn't express it in that way.

So, how can we understand it?

Jesus' solution doesn't involve discarding the yoke entirely.

You know Farmers used to train young oxen to plow by partnering them with stronger and more mature oxen.

The job of the younger ox was simply to follow in the same direction and keep pace with the teacher ox.

The older ox pulled most of the weight and understood the commands of the plow driver.

As long as the young ox followed the older ox, everything was fine.

But if the younger ox decided to speed up or lag behind, the work became much more difficult.

Only by keeping pace with the older ox could the younger ox complete the day’s work without collapsing from exhaustion.

Jesus speaks about being Yoked with Him.

Yes, it is not being free from that - because the Life is not the Hallmark Movie, having the yoke doesn’t mean that it will always be comfortable, but it means it will not crush us.

Being yoked with Jesus means that we are living in a way that allows us rest because we are under His covering of grace.

So what do I mean by “grace”?

There are endless ways we could talk about grace, but there are two major aspects of it.

Grace

is God’s undeserved favor that puts us in right relationship with Him,

is the power God gives that enables us to live the life He’s called us to.

These people who were listening to Jesus had no idea what grace is.

They were yoked to a complex system of Jewish regulations referred to as “the law.”

Obeying the law as perfectly as they could was how they stayed in right relationship with God and made sure that the work they were doing for Him was acceptable.

But look, Jesus didn’t tell them to throw off the yoke completely.

Why? Because they still had work to do — and as long as we are alive, we too will always have work to do.

WORK is part of our vocation!

Pope Francis wrote: The human person is a creator, and creates through work.

Work not only as a job, work as a spouse, as a volunteer, etc. Work of perfecting the Virtues, our spiritual life, prayer life.

We all are created for purpose,

A life without work is not possible, more it is loosing some kind of meaning.

So the question is not, about setting ourselves from “any kind of work” but we “will do it ?”

The question is this: How will you pull the burden of your life’s work along?

The people in Jesus’ day were using the yoke of the law to pull their life and everything in it along.

It left them “tired, worn out, and burned out on religion.”

And it happens also today.

Seeing our Faith as a yoke of the law, with the regulations, commandments, morality, etc. it leads actually to being tired, frustrated, and burned out.

That is the Yoke without Jesus, and sounds like a paradox - because our faith is all about Jesus.

But The yoke of grace is what Jesus is offering as the contrary to the yoke of the law.

That is the Yoke in Action.

Saint Paul gives us a great example of the yoke of grace in action.

Paul had pleaded three times for the Lord to remove what he called “a thorn in my flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7).

We don’t know what the thorn was. Some say it was a painful health issue, while others say it may have been even sexual temptations.

No matter what it was, we can be sure that Paul saw it as a torment and a hindrance to his life’s work.

But when he asked the Lord to remove it, the Lord replied,

My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. — 2 Corinthians 12:9

Paul realized that because God’s grace was enough, his performance didn’t have to be perfect.

His weaknesses, sufferings, hardships, persecution — anything that worked against him to trip him up — provided an opportunity for the grace of God to be shown for how powerful it really is.

Paul came to a place where he was so dependent on the grace of God that he could say,

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

The yoke of Christ is perfectly fitted to support and aid us in fulfilling His purpose for our lives. It’s not always comfortable, but that’s not the point.

It is always what I need for the path He wants me to walk.

Under the yoke of grace, I can find rest where I am right here, right now, weaknesses and all —why because I am walking close to Jesus, along with him.