Thursday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 15, 2021

Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

“All you who labor and are burdened.”  It is the fate of all humans to labor in some way.  In the beginning, Adam and Eve delighted in their work in the Garden of Eden, for all things responded to their touch.  After their sin, the earth was turned against them, as it were, and it was only with difficulty that people survived.  As the Lord God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread” (Genesis 3, 19).  And for much of human history, the majority of people lived from one day to the next in subsistence farming.  In addition to labor, we are burdened — or we burden ourselves — with worries and anxieties over financial, health, and family matters.  Religion provided little help in ancient times because the pagan gods could not render assistance.  As it is written of the time when the priests of Baal cried out to him in desperation, “There was no voice heard, nor did any one answer, nor regard them as they prayed” (1 Kings 18:29).

But with the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Father began to be reset all things and put them in place anew: “In the dispensation of the fullness of times, to re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on earth, in him” (Ephesians 1, 10).  This includes human work and the burdens which all of us carry.  In the verses that make up the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Lord Jesus calls to himself “all who labor and are burdened” in order that by belonging to him their work and weights might be set right.  Ultimately, this is fulfilled in heaven, when the work of the just will consist in the joy of praising God forever, but even now, the Lord gives us his “rest”.  That is, in this world, work once again becomes service to God.  The meaning of work is restored by Christ, who took up the tools of carpentry in order to join us.  When we see work in this way, it becomes easier and more worthwhile.  Even drudgery has meaning and is a way to be with Christ.

All the same, we must work, and the cares of living are unavoidable.  The Lord himself says, “Take my yoke upon you”, indicating that on earth there will always be a yoke, but if we toil, doing our best, offering our labor to God, our hearts become like his, meek and humble.  This is the “learning” he gives us to do.  “You will find rest for yourselves.”  This brings to mind Psalm 23, 2: “He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up to the water of refreshment.”  We will rest in the Lord’s arms on earth if we do his will, and if we surrender our cares to him: “Cast all your cares upon him, for he has care of you” (1 Peter 5, 7).  “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”  Love lifts all burdens.  As we read of Jacob, who worked seven hard years in order to marry his beloved Rachel, “Jacob served seven years for Rachel: and they seemed but a few days, because of the greatness of his love for her” (Genesis 29, 20).  If we are in love with Jesus, whatever he calls us to do will be sweet to us, though it cost us something physically.

Many of us burden ourselves unnecessarily, often working contrary to the will of God or desiring things which are not good for us to have.  St. Paul experienced this, and told how God revealed this to him at the time of his conversion: “It is hard for you to kick against the goad.”  That is, we cause our own suffering.  Through prayer we can see how we are doing this, and with the help of God, like St. Paul, we can work profitably for the Lord.