For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/121008.shtml
Most of us, if not all, are tired. We are tired of striving to be holy. We are tired of the discipline of prayer. We are tired of being busy. We are tired of the pressure. We are tired of trying to become lovable and significant. We can even get tired of being tired.
The last thing tired people need is another yoke, and yet Jesus invites us to take His yoke upon us. Is this the yoke of 40 days in the desert, followed by torturous temptation by the devil? Is this the yoke of the via crucis, and the taking on the sins of the world by placing our lives in the hands of our enemies? If the yoke He is talking about is anything like Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ then excuse me for thinking this yoke may not actually be the remedy for my tiredness.
For I am meek and humble of heart. Jesus seems to say that His yoke is easy and His burden light not because He is inviting us to a week in Cancun being pampered, but because He does not consider Himself to be important. At a minimum, He sees His life as far less important than the lives of those He came to save. As we see also in the Virgin Mary, it seems like the biggest responsibilities are laid upon those with the greatest self-forgetfulness. In the face of real humility, every impossible burden become impossibly light. The Virgin says - How can this be? Yet let it be done to me according to your word. The Lord says - If it is possible let this cup pass me by, but not as I will, but as you will. He even says of his persecutors - Father, they are your gift to me.
If our significance is received as a gift from God and not pursued relentlessly as our greatest accomplishment, it is possible for even the heaviest burdens that come our way, even conforming our lives to the cross of Christ, to become lighter over time. May we be humble enough to let ourselves be yoked to the one who emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, while never counting the cost. +m
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