Jesus said to the crowds: “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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Some years ago, a story went viral about a lost sheep named Shrek.
Shrek lived an otherwise ordinary life until he became separated from his shepherd. For six long years, he wandered the hills of New Zealand alone, often resting at night in cold, rocky caves.
Without his shepherd to shear his wool, Shrek’s coat ballooned to sixty pounds, six times the average weight a sheep normally carries. That’s enough wool to make 20 adult suits!
After he was found, it took Shrek’s shepherd about 20 minutes to shear all of that excess wool. Imagine that – six years of weight lifted in a matter of minutes.
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There’s something arrestingly human about that.
Like Shrek, how often do we carry around unnecessary weight, even five or six times what we actually need to carry?
We can hide our emotions, bury our grief, or lug around years of unnecessary guilt, leaving us with an arthritic spirit. Why not just let it go?
“Come to me, all of you who are heavy burdened,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “and I will give you rest.” This command – “come to me” – implies movement. We must be on the go, leaving the cave we may find ourselves in, leaning into the arms of our shepherd.
Only then can Jesus do what he does best: shear our “wool” and lift our burdens.
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This is true not only in prayer, but also in confession, when the Lord forgives – and forgets – our sins.
Today, may we allow ourselves to be found, leaving what no longer serves us behind.
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Image credits: (1) Love Letter Daily (2) your love.blog (3) Business Insider
Jesus said to his disciples: “What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Packed inside this tiny parable are a few important reminders for the Church today.
First, notice the source of the shepherd’s joy. It does not come from passively tending to his flock; rather, from the active pursuit of the lost.
Meaning, faith prevents us from standing idly while others wander away from the Church. We have to seek them out until they’re found.
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Second, consider who wandered off – one of the original members of the flock. This parable is not about bringing new souls to the faith; it’s about caring for those who already belong, but have strayed.
I’m sure we can all think of someone who is either on the margins of the Church, on their way out, or has lost their faith. While Christ commands us to have a missionary spirit, we must also be intentional about not losing those already baptized into the Church.
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What would it look like for the Church to care for Catholics on the margins? How can we re-invigorate the faith of those who’ve fallen away?
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Finding concrete answers to such questions should make us rejoice.
The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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The Gospels do not deal directly with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Although today’s passage tells us of Christ’s conception, what we celebrate today is actually Mary’s.
Catholics believe that she was born without Original Sin, making her a worthy dwelling place for Christ in the womb. For nine precious months, she served as God’s tabernacle on earth.
As the archangel Gabriel foretells today, “Hail, full of grace!” Gabriel is not the one imparting grace to Mary; he is acknowledging who she already is.
Full of grace.
The favored one.
The worthy – and potential – ark of the new covenant.
This is why Mary is able to surrender freely and joyfully to his proposal, because she bears no sin in her heart. Her entire being is dedicated to God. As she herself says, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”
This mysterious story of an angel tearing open the veil of heaven and coming down to earth raises further questions: How was Mary born without Original Sin? Where did this singular grace come from?
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The answer to these questions only brings us deeper into the shroud of mystery. Mary was full of grace – and free of Original Sin – because of the grace that will flow from the Cross.
Thus, when Gabriel praises her, he praises Mary for being in possession of something that will happen in the future…
Let that sink in.
It’d be like me walking into the locker room of the LA Dodgers before game seven started, congratulating them for winning the World Series.
But, as the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah, “My ways are not your ways.”
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Now Mary reigns as Queen of Heaven, perhaps a role she even intuited in that sacred encounter with Gabriel. As Queen, she serves as the most powerful intercessor in the halls of heaven.
This, too, was foretold.
In the Old Testament, the king’s mother was considered the second most powerful figure in the nation, next to the king himself. She was the one who spoke directly to her son’s heart, interceding on behalf of his subjects.
Thus, in heaven, Mary not only has direct access to Christ, but she also holds a maternal pull on his heart strings.
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As great as Mary is, she is a humble model for us all. Her life was sinless, leaving us an example to follow. As Saint Paul says in our second reading, “God chose us… before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
In baptism, we are all washed from the curse of Original Sin. The rest of the Christian life involves living out the calling we received then – “to holy and blameless.”
As we move deeper into the Advent season, may our resolve be strengthened by Mary’s intercession that we, too, would be a worthy dwelling place for the Lord on earth.
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Image credits: (1) Dreamstime.com (2) The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, 1660 (3) Saint Anthony Shrine
