Rest. That’s what we are all after. Our lives are hectic. With all the changes our society is going through with the pandemic, the evident angst and anger of our political process, and the pressure of Christmas in a struggling consumer-driven economy, these things fill our lives and weigh us down. Jesus tells us to take his yoke on us. Wait? What? Does God want us to put on a yoke? A yoke is a tool used with beasts of burden. It is to harness them to a load and have them pull it.. .how is that restful?
It’s because the yoke that Jesus wants us to put on is a training yoke. When you have a new ox, a new animal that you want to train to work on a farm, you harness it to an experienced one. The one with the experience shows the new one what to do. We could train them the hard way by making them learn from their mistakes, letting them rub themselves raw against the yoke until they finally figure out the right way to do something. When you harness them to an experienced worker, they learn faster, easier, and share the load. They still have to do the work, but the work doesn’t seem as hard, and they get the support of the one who already knows what to do.
As we journey through Advent, the Church reminds us that we need to let Christ be born in our hearts every second, every day. Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, where we recognized the perfect example of discipleship given to us by our Lady. Last night I came to the Church to pray a rosary with many other people for our Lady. One of the lines in Spanish asked for us to receive the same breath that Mary had, in order to “face life with integrity and to grant us the grace to enjoy her presence daily since being close to her makes us feel safe, protected and confident.”
That’s what a yoke being light means. I saw an article saying that the Gallup poll looked to see which groups were most depressed, most dejected right now during this pandemic. The only group that is not more depressed now than they were two years ago is the group actively going to Church. That’s the yoke Jesus is talking about. It’s not that we aren’t going to go through hard times. Just being a Catholic doesn’t necessarily mean wealth or prosperity. We will struggle with all the same things the rest of the world does. Our yoke gives us hope though, that if we follow the Church, Mary, and the Saints, we will eventually learn how to be saints ourselves. No matter what happens in life, Jesus is there with us to help us along the way.
A homily for Wednesday of the 2nd week of Advent: 12-09-2020