Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mt 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.”
THERE IS A LIGHTER YOKE: The message of God to His people through Moses is I AM WHO I AM. I have seen your suffering and I have come to save you. In the gospel of today Jesus invites all those who labor and are burdened to have rest in him. He does not attach any cost to his offer but openly invites all the concerned to this divine rest. He says that His yoke is smooth and lighter to stop working for other cruel masters and work for Him. He invites those who have been working hard, seeking happiness and satisfaction in different persons, activities, preoccupations, ideologies and acts to the rest which their souls desire. For as St. Augustine says: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
PRAYER: Let us pray today for the courage to approach Christ who invites us to have rest in Himself.
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GOD COMFORTS: Jesus invites us, “come to me” than go to “the wise and the intelligent” of this world to find comfort and consolation. Compared to the heavy burden imposed by the religious authorities of his time, the yoke that Jesus asks us to carry is very light. In fact, we can unburden all our worries and concerns at his feet and find freedom and peace of heart. In whatever burdening situations we find ourselves, we have a sure recourse in Jesus. We have numerous testimonies of people who turn to Jesus and find their lives transformed from hopelessness to new life, from the verge of committing suicide to fullness of joy. What makes the burden light is the relationship of love between Jesus and us.
DAILY GOSPEL 