Probably one of the most
familiar gospels, that familiar phrase of Jesus saying, “Take My yoke upon you
and come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome.” And the beautiful thought, really I think
comes out of our readings today while Jesus is talking about revealing things
to the little ones, to the children.
Earlier in the gospel he said, “Let the children come to me.” And you have to realize that in that time of
Jesus, in that Mediterranean world children were the weakest and the most
vulnerable members of society. Amazing
about 30% died at birth or soon after, 30% of live births died by the age of 6,
and 60% did not make it past their 16th birthday. Children had little status within the
community or in the family until they reached the age of maturity. A child was considered equal to being a
slave. If there was a famine or a
hardship the elders would be fed first before the children.
So Jesus is aligning himself
with the most vulnerable and the poorest of society in saying, “These are the
ones to whom I am revealing Myself and God’s love to them.” So there is the tip-off for you and for
me. Jesus is calling us to do the
same. That we in turn are called to
reach out to the most vulnerable, the most powerless people in our own society
and community, and even our own families.
And we realize that Jesus does that to each and every one of us
here.
Now the beautiful imagery He
is using here too is the yoke. Now at
that time in many parts of the world yoke is that collar that goes around the
animal, usually the oxen at the time of Jesus.
They would be pulling in tandem and the yoke was fitted to that
particular neck of that particular ox, so that it would not chafe, so that all
the energy and strength of the animal would be used for pulling and for doing
the work and not be injured in the process.
So Jesus is saying to you
and to me that His yoke is easy, His burden is light. In other words, Jesus is in tandem with you
and me. He is helping you and me pull
together for the strength, for the things that we need in our lives. Does that mean your hardships or difficulties
are going to be removed and taken away?
Probably not. We still have
sickness, we still have disease, we still have hunger, we have people without
jobs. We have a lot of these things in
our world and society going around us, the ravages of storms that we have no
control over either. But Jesus is saying,
“I’m pulling with you. When you allow me
to work with you, together we will get through this.” There’s where the burden becomes light, when
you and I realize we don’t have to do it alone or by ourselves. And if Jesus is pulling with me, and with you
individually in your own needs and struggles, then when we come together like
this as a parish community we realize that we are pulling with each other.
Think about it this
way. Isn’t it great, how comforting when
you’re down and you have some very heavy things happen to you, the death of a
spouse, the death in your family, a sibling, an uncle or aunt, grandparent,
perhaps one of your own children, when you have suffered the loss of your own
job, you don’t have enough income coming in and you are searching just to put
food on the table, to clothe your family, or you’ve had a terrible sickness or
disease, you’ve been in the hospital or the nursing home or someone you know is
there. Isn’t it so encouraging when
someone else comes along and puts their arm around you and says, “I’ll walk
with you.” Or you call up somebody and
they let you pour out your feelings in your heart. You get out your anger, your frustrations,
all that is going on inside you and they just listen. They listen compassionately, without any
judgements. They don’t say to you, “Well
it’s God’s will that you suffer.” No, it
isn’t God’s will that you and I suffer.
That’s a misnomer. Don’t put that
burden on God. It happens. But when people are there to just be with you
or so many times people will bring food over to your family in a time of
hardship. Look at the food you brought
here this morning. That’s going to go to
those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Somebody will watch your home maybe while you are at the hospital, or
taking care of somebody else. Or you’ll
get a card in the mail from somebody that says, “I’m thinking about you, I’m
praying for you.” Sometimes when we
can’t get there physically to do something, but when someone says, “I’m praying
for you” they are taking out the time to think about you personally.
I love to, when I go do my
prayers, to image the people that I am thinking of, put the names and the faces
together of the people that I know in St. Louis, people in Grand Rapids, the
people here, whoever I am praying for.
Perhaps sometimes you may not know the person you’re praying for, but
you still mention them by name. How good
it is when you can pray for one another.
Think of all the people on
the other side of the world whom you do not have any names or faces to go with,
but people who walk this earth as you and I do, and we pray for them.
Or you make a donation. We take up many different collections here in
this parish that goes to the Bishop’s Relief Fund, that go to CEAP, that go to
Sharing and Caring Hands, that go into our Sharing Fund. In the course of the year we take 4% of our
ordinary Sunday income that goes into what we call the Sharing Fund. And I administer that fund, and what I do
with that money is help you, the fellow parishioners. Especially those who can’t pay their rent,
those who are struggling to make house payments, those who need food, those who
need clothing and the basic necessities of life. We have cut out from the Sharing Fund helping
any of the organizations, like that get funds from
Think of the image, you know
this is our July 4th weekend.
We are celebrating our 232nd birth of our country. You know Friday morning, July 4th,
there is the basic Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with
certain inalienable right, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.” You and I live in this
great, beautiful country. It is
entrusted to you and to me and we in turn, like Jesus is saying in the gospel,
are given the challenge and the great honor really of passing on what has already
been given to you and to me.
I don’t know if you’ve ever
had the chance to go to New York and stand below that Statue of Liberty or
visit Ellis Island. So many of us here
this morning, we are what? We are the
products of immigrants. Most of us here,
we’re from immigrants that arrived back in the 1800’s from Ireland or from
Italy or Poland or Germany, wherever it might have been, but we are the
products. That’s our heritage, it’s
entrusted to you and to me. I know my
Irish ancestors came to Michigan back in the 1830’s and 40’s. You can trace your ancestry as well. In recent years, especially in the 60’s, so
many people came to this country from Vietnam and many of them are here in our
parish community. They are your brothers
and sisters. And then later on in the
early 90’s, mid 90’s, so many people came to this country from war-torn
countries of Africa, especially Liberia and Nigeria and other parts. And they are here in our parish community and
you have welcomed them. And now we are
into that 4th stage of welcoming so many of our Latino brothers and
sisters. You come to that 12:30 Mass
after this Mass and you are going to see as many people sitting in those pews
as are sitting here right now. What a
great gift we are sharing with each other.
You know if you stand at
that statue, the beautiful Liberty. You
know it was given to America by the people of France. But the lines are so great:
“Give me your tired, your
poor,
Your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your
teeming shores.
Send these, the homeless,
tempest tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the
golden door.”
This certainly is a great
country because there are great people in it.
You. Everyone of you here this
morning is here because somehow at this moment in time in history you are I are
privileged to live and to be here. So do
not take it for granted what God has given to you and to me. Be grateful.
That’s why we are here this morning again. But also in turn realize that you and I as
members of St. Alphonsus Parish Community.
As I have talked earlier all the beautiful ways that you and I as a
parish community keep holding this lamp to reach out toward the needy. “Come to me all you who are weary, and find
life burdensome. Take My yoke upon you. My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Be so grateful that Jesus love each and every
one of us, gives us His own Body and Blood again this morning, and then in our
gratitude realize that you and I are called in turn to help each other to carry
our burdens.
And then one day, when all
of us leave this world and we get to enter into eternity and enjoy the
wonderful blessings of God’s eternal love, know that today, in the Eucharist
right now, we already have been given it.