"For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." What burdens can
we allow the Lord to shoulder for us?
How are these readings challenging? Comforting?
Spiritual Reflection
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One day the old man's wife died. A few days later the little
boy looked out of the window and saw the man sitting in a chair in his back
yard weeping. The little boy headed next door and climbed up into the old
man's lap and just sat there quietly. A little while later, the boy's mother
glanced out into the yard and saw them there. She came rushing out of the
house and ordered the little boy to come home. Once they were home, the
mother asked her son what he thought he was doing by bothering the man next
door at a hard time like this. The boy replied, "I was helping him cry."
"What you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have
revealed to the merest children." "Come to me, all you who are weary and
find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your
shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls
will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light."
Death is certainly not a stranger to us. When we face serious
illness and death we become quite helpless. There are some kinds of grief
and sadness that cannot be taken away in this life. They have to be cried
through. That can happen either with an empty lap or with the friendship and
support of someone who cares enough to be with us.
The job we have of being followers of Jesus is not the job of
"fixing things." We certainly try to do that, and use many resources and
lots of energy in the process. We cannot always be successful. The
four-year-old boy had a lot more sense than his mom. Moms know too, that we
should stay in our own yards. We shouldn't be "bothering" the neighbors. The
four-year-old boy didn't know that. Because he didn't, a man was healed. The
child was operating under instinct, not common sense. That instinct was
true!
Whenever we begin to use excuses to deny compassion to others,
we're not living our Christian calling. "He doesn't belong to our Church."
"They're not from around here." "He's not the right color." "She's a
teenager." We can have a hard time understanding that Christian communities
don't exist just for themselves. We need to understand Christ's command to
provide unconditional love and compassion for all people who suffer, no
matter who they are. When it seems that this kind of behavior looks very
different from the way the rest of the world handles things, that's exactly
the point.
This week we'll have some chances to reach out and help. We'll
have the choice whether to do so or not. I hope we'll hear the little voice
in our head that makes excuses. It's time that we stopped listening to that
voice! This weekend we celebrate our freedom and independence, but also our
responsibility to help one another. "What has been hidden from the learned
and the clever you have revealed to the merest children." Let's remember
that four-year-old boy. Have a good week!
Pilgrimage 2008, to Southern
Italy, Rome and the Vatican!
Rome, the Vatican, Assisi,
San Giovanni Rotondo, Capri, Pompeii,
Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast & much more.
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Brochure!
Reflection ©MMVIII,
Rev. Patrick A. Umberger, Far
from the Church?
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