12/13/2023 (Wednesday) Today’s gospel reading: Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus said to the crowds:
28 Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.
29 Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.
30 For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.
12/13/2023 (Wednesday) Today’s gospel reflection / homily / sermon: Matthew 11:28-30
Psalm 139:14 tells us that we are wonderfully and fearfully made and this is enough reason to praise God. Yet in Psalm 102, we read a prayer of a suffering person who has become weak. Indeed, we are wonderful creatures and yet, we are suffering because of sin. Our disobedience, rebelliousness and pride led us into a world where we need to labor hard just to survive and to endure many other hardships. So we experience anxiety, weariness, and loneliness. That is our life away from God.
Driven out of paradise we were, God did not forget us. He continued to love us and He has sent His only Son to rescue us from our hopelessness.
The gospel reading above shows Jesus offering an invitation. He wants us to find real comfort in him. With open arms, He invites us to turn to Him. He does not have the solution to our problems because HE IS THE SOLUTION. He is all that we need in this world full of suffering. He gives us the strength to carry on and the wisdom to have a clearer view of our problems. Then we can now figure out how to solve the problem.
Of course, this is not to say that with Jesus, all our sufferings will have a solution in an instant. He is offering a way through, not a way out, of suffering. Believe in Jesus we may, we will still suffer and like Jesus at Gethsemane, we may pray for the cup of suffering to pass from us. Yet the Lord has shown us that embracing suffering is actually is a path to purification and that suffering will lead us to resurrection.
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