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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In Jesus’ time, farmers paired oxen together using an apparatus called a yoke. The two oxen plowed the fields together.
A stronger, more experienced ox was always paired with a younger ox to teach it how to plow. The yoke also pushed the younger ox forward, who otherwise might’ve given up when his muscles fatigued in the heat of the mid-day sun.
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Jesus likens himself to this stronger, more experienced ox who offers to plow through the fields of life with us.
This is the good news! Jesus never gives up. He never tires. He’s used to the mid-day heat; he’s knows every field; he’s been through it all before.
He’s plowed through the fields of suffering; the fields of poverty; the fields of friendship; even the fields of betrayal and death.
He’s plowed through them all and come out victoriously.
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What he offers us today is his wisdom, his experience, and his strength.
“Come to me, all you who are heavy burdened,” Jesus says, “and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
Let him be that strong, experienced ox who strengthens us when the heat seems unbearable.
With Jesus by our side, we can plow through every field we encounter in life.
It’s just a matter of joining our yoke – our lives – to his.
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Image credits: (1) identitySPECIALIST (2) Yoked, Life is the Stories You Can Tell (3) Celebratingweakness.com
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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The Lord encourages each of us to have that proactive spirit of the shepherd in today’s Gospel.
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It’s not the shepherd’s fault that his sheep wandered off. It wandered off on its own.
But this separation affected both of them, so the shepherd does something about it, traveling over mountains, through valleys, into the night, not stopping until he finds his sheep.
And when he does, he doesn’t break its legs, preventing it from running off again. He joyfully places it on his shoulders, gladly rejoining it to his flock.
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Like the shepherd, at times we can all become distant or separated from someone we love.
Maybe it was a heated argument, a death in the family, or a bruised ego.
Perhaps it was nothing intentional; life gets busy. Maybe we lost contact through the slow saw of time.
The last thing we should do is wait for the other person to reach out, because separation affects both parties.
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So, when possible, be proactive like the shepherd. Search until you find them.
If reconciliation isn’t possible, make the effort not to carry any negativity in your own heart. Rather, pray that Jesus, the supreme shepherd, would soften their heart making reconciliation possible someday.
“For it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost,” he says.
Rather, God desires harmony amongst all of his children, and he will not stop trying until his will is done.
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Image credits: (1) DailyVerses.net (2) Jesus Christ as Shepherd Embracing Lamb in Rocks, Melani Pyke, Fine Art America (3) Community Tool Box, The University of Kansas
One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– he said to the one who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Many of you know that, over the course of my priestly ministry, I’ve witnessed a number of miraculous healings through the Anointing of the Sick.
Several people have literally come back from the dead. A nine-year-old boy was going blind and regained his sight. A woman’s lungs were deteriorating and were suddenly restored.
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Often, I read this Gospel passage prior to administering the Sacrament to remind people of two things: Jesus, can in fact bring physical healing to people, but this is not what is foremost in his heart.
What matters to the Lord more than the physical state of our bodies is the state of our soul.
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In today’s Gospel, a paralyzed man is brought to the feet of Jesus by his friends. The Gospel stresses that he was paralyzed. Not that he was a “sinner,” but “paralyzed.” It’s why his friends went to such great lengths to bring him to Jesus.
They literally pull him on a stretcher onto a neighbor’s roof, rip the thatched roof open, and lower him down to the feet of the Lord.
But the Lord just looks at him as he’s lying on the floor and says first, not, “Rise and walk.” But, “Your sins are forgiven.”
What Jesus sees first is not what everyone else sees. The crowd sees a man with paralysis. Jesus sees a soul in need of salvation.
But in order for them to believe that he can, in fact, save this man, Jesus says to him, “Your sins are forgiven…now rise and walk.”
The physical healing taught people that Jesus could do something greater – forgive sins and save souls.
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It’s easy for us to get caught up in the physical world – the state of our bodies, the state of our finances, the trajectory of our career, our image, and so on. But what matters to the Lord more than anything is the state of our soul.
Tomorrow evening at 7 pm each of us has the opportunity to experience a miracle we all need on occasion, the renewal our spiritual lives through another Sacrament, confession. Allow the Lord to say to you what he said to this man, “Your sins are forgiven…Now rise and walk.”
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Image credits: (1) I Need a Miracle, Oak Hill Church (2) What Should Doctors Do When We Experience a Miracle? Opinion, NYTimes (3) Conditions for a Miracle, Kairos Ministries
