Thursday – 15th Week in Ordinary Time 

Gospel – Matthew 11:28-30

Share the Load!

Sharing a Moment

We all have our burdens; we are all weighed down with cares and stress and worries for ourselves, our family, and our world.  We all trudge through long days and sleepless nights, wondering when we will find a break from the load and relief from the hardships.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to bring our troubles to Him and He will give us rest.  Ok, sounds good.  But then He says to take on HIS yoke because His yoke is easy and light and we will find rest.  Seriously??  His yoke is easy?  Let go of my burden and take on His?  How is that gonna be any better?  Are we missing something here?  Well, of course we are!

Unlike Jesus’ followers, most of us lack simple farming experience; we simply don’t realize that a yoke is meant for TWO oxen!  And that is the crux of Jesus’ words today.  The yoke is not meant for one; it is meant for two to share the load.  The burden, no matter what it is, is not meant to be carried by yourself alone.  Jesus tells us that His yoke has room for one more person – YOU!  Jesus says to bring your worries to Him and let’s share the load.  And by sharing the weight, your burden becomes easier and lighter.

We celebrate today the Feast of St Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.  Along with his good friend, St. Thomas Aquinas, he was one of the leading medieval theologians and certainly carried a heavy load.  Appointed head of his order at an early age, he successfully brought peace to his order which had been filled with internal strife.  He died while he was assisting at the Council of Lyons which was attempting to re-unite the Latin and Greek churches.  He is known for his ability to reconcile different views on theology and philosophy! 

None of us have to carry our stresses and worries alone!  Share your burden with Jesus!  Share them with the people that God sends to you today, the ones who ask “how you are doing’ and ‘is there anything I can do for you’!  And conversely be that one Christ-like friend who lovingly offers to share the burden!