The Refreshment Jesus Gives, Fourteenth Sunday (A), July 9, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Vincentian Missionary Seminary, Krakow, Poland
Tertio Millennio Seminar
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
July 9, 2023
Zech 9:9-10, Ps 145, Rom 8:9.11-13, Mt 11:25-30

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today at Mass Jesus will give us one of the most incredible invitations we’ve ever received and, if we say yes to it, one of the most unbelievable guarantees.
• The invitation comes straight from Jesus, the God-man, our Savior: “Come to me,” he says, “all you who labor and find life burdensome.” That’s the invitation. “Come to me all you who are working hard but can’t see to fully get your head above water to feel secure; come to me all you who are burdened with anxieties of studies, work, family life, relationships, age or health; come to me all you who are weighed down by sorrows, who are going through life with heavy hearts because you’ve lost a loved one or are worried about the health of someone close to you; come to me all you who are pressed down even by your sins and the harm sins always bring to our lives and to the lives of those around us; all of you, come!”
• After this invitation, Jesus gives us the extraordinary promise: “And I will refresh you.” Think about what Jesus is saying: “All of you who have problems with human life — every single one of you — come to me, and I will refresh you, bring you back to life, make you see the blessing in what you see as a burden.”
• That’s what he said to his listeners two thousand years ago — who must have been shocked by so categorical a promise — and that’s what he says to each one of us today. Any there any takers? Does any of us need Jesus’ help to bear heavy burdens?
• To understand better Jesus’ amazing offer, we first have to look at whom Jesus is summoning and whom he isn’t. Jesus addresses his invitation to those who are “labor” and are carrying heavy burdens. He is not calling to himself in this way those who are lazy, who pass the buck, who don’t roll up their sleeves and work up a sweat. He’s not inviting those who are seeking a comfortable, easy life. When Jesus says “follow me!,” he’s not intending to lead us to South Beach or Punta Cana; he’s going to lead us along the same path he trod, which was a hard-working path all the way Calvary.
• Jesus is speaking, rather, to those who are working hard, who are striving to take responsibility for their own life, for the life of their loved ones, for their neighbors, our society, our country and the Church, who are pushing themselves in love to the limit.
• Jesus had told us (as we pondered a few weeks ago) to pray to the Harvest Master, his Father, “to send laborers into his vineyard” (Mt 9:38 ), not bodies. The way to salvation and the salvation of others in that vineyard is through responding to all his gifts with faith, love, fatigue and perspiration. It’s those who labor whom he promises to refresh.
• The second group of people whom Jesus is not calling is the proud, the arrogant, those who already think they know everything they need or know it all. Jesus says in the Gospel, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to little ones.”
• Those who are “wise and learned” in the their own eyes don’t capture what Jesus is revealing or value his invitation because they don’t think they need it. It’s only the “little ones,” those who are humble, those who know how much they need the Lord, who know the worth of what Jesus wants to give them.
• Jesus himself is “meek and humble of heart,” and in order to understand what he wants to reveal, we need to become meek and humble as well. And there are great consequences hanging on whether we do. Jesus said that in order to enter into his Kingdom, in order to get to heaven, we need to become like “little children.” This is a call not to be childish, but child-like: simple, trusting, obedient. If we think we “know it all,” we really know very little, either about ourselves or the power and the wisdom of God.
• The second thing we have to tackle is how Jesus promises to refresh us. He does not pledge to do so by taking away our burdens. That’s what most of us think we want. If we’re dealing with the stress and the fatigue of life, most of us think we want the Lord to take away all our hardships, so that we can live without stress, without financial concerns, without the need to put in hard-working days. We want the Lord to exchange whatever difficulties we have for an easier, more comfortable, relaxed life. That’s not what Jesus knows is best for us nor wants to do. Immediately after inviting us and promising us that he will refresh us, he gives us his remedy: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.”
• To find our refreshment involves two things:
• First, Jesus wants us to come to Him to learn. He is the Master. He wants us to come to him directly and to learn from him. That’s why he has us come to Mass each Sunday, so that we can learn from Him in Sacred Scripture and learn from him on the inside through Holy Communion. It’s also the reason why he wants us to pray each day, because in prayer he continues to whisper to us the path to humility and meekness.
• Second, we need to take Jesus’ yoke upon our shoulders. What is that yoke? It’s what he put on his shoulders: his Cross. At first glance, it seems ridiculous that Jesus called that yoke “easy” and “light.” After all, he fell three times under its weight and it was the difficult instrument of his own painful crucifixion. What made him capable of calling it sweet and light is the love with which he bore it. The Cross is not so much a sign of pain and suffering, but a sign of the love for the Father and for us that made that pain bearable. When the Lord says he wants us to learn from him in taking his yoke upon ourselves, he is telling us that we need to take his love upon us and bear our own crosses like he bore his.
• There is the great, true story from Boys Town when in 1921 a crippled boy with leg braces had difficulty walking. Other boys would take turns giving him a ride on their backs. A photographer saw the scene and snapped a photo that became famous. When the boy carrying his lame friend was asked whether he was heavy, he replied, “He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother.” The love he had for his fellow orphan was so great that he was willing to bear the pain.
• That’s what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel. And he’s not asking us to do anything he himself hasn’t already done for us. He, the Good Shepherd, bears each of us, his lost sheep, on his shoulders, and doesn’t complain about the weight, for, to him, we’re not heavy, we’re his brothers and sisters. The more we love like him, the lighter and the easier our burdens will be.
• We begin that mutual carrying at Mass, where we and each of the faithful carry each other up to the Altar. The Eucharist is the place where Jesus gives us Himself within so that he might help us bear our burdens from within. The Eucharist is the summit of Jesus’ meekness and humility, who loved us so much that he became our food under the appearances of bread and wine. The Eucharist is the place where, simply, Jesus refreshes us. “Come to me, all you who labor and find life burdensome and I will refresh you.”
• Jesus makes that invitation anew today. He’s waiting for our RSVP.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel

Mt 11:25-30

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“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.”

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