Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
How do you know what to say when tragedy strikes? I always felt speechless in moments like these when I had a stint as a hospital chaplain. When I enter someone’s room – I enter into someone’s suffering. I can give no wisdom, advice, or word to make anything better. My words will not cure this person’s cancer. It will not make their estranged family members come to visit them. I would sometimes just sit there silently, shackled by sadness, and feel totally inept at my job. After having this experience multiple times a day during my first months and feeling utterly useless, I turned to a new strategy. I started to visit these patients and, if they were up for it, read the passage we hear in today’s Gospel: “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 is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
A yoke – from what I have gathered – is a contraption that two (or more) oxen use to carry a cart or a plow. Jesus offers us his yoke, which means he is offering to take the load with us. He holds my burdens, and I am not carrying them alone. Note that Jesus does not provide more words in our suffering, but to suffer with us. No pious platitudes suffice in our moments of grief. No spell will expel our depression, dread, or pain. The only word God gives to us in these moments is The Word. Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, sits with us in our hospital bed, feeling what we feel and experiencing what we experience. We find peace when we know that we are not suffering alone. Bring your burdens to Christ in prayer, and let him carry them with you.