Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
Readings: Isaiah 40:25-31; Psalm 102(103):1-4, 8, 10; Matthew 11: 28-30
7 December 2022
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves” – Matthew 11:29
In today’s Gospel Jesus offers to free us from the burden of our pride.
What is it that makes our lives heavy and weighed down? Precisely the burden of our own egos, the weight of one’s own self. When I am puffing myself up with my own self-importance, I’m labouring under all that weight. Jesus is saying, “Become a child. Take that weight off your shoulders and put on the weight of my yoke, the yoke of my obedience to the Father.”
Anthony de Mello proposed the following parable to describe us prideful souls. A group of people sit on a bus that is passing through the most glorious countryside, but they have the shades pulled down on all the windows and are bickering about who gets the front seat on the bus. This is the burden of pride: preferring the narrow and stuffy confines of the bus to the beauty that is effortlessly available all around. This, of course, is why Jesus can say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What the Lord proposes is not freedom from suffering but, what is much more important, freedom from the self.
Reflect: From your own experience or desire, explain how true freedom is “easy” when yoked to Christ.
Pray for the recognition of God’s love today.
