18 July 2013
Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Today’s gospel contains the famous passage about the lightness of the burden Christ gives us. At times, when we look at certain moments of our lives and the lives of others, we sometimes wonder if Jesus understands the term “light” in the same way most of us do. So often it is not the cataclysmic event but rather the daily grind that disheartens us and the image of lightness does not seem to ring true. Reconciling the realities of a loving God and the presence of evil would take more than just a few lines. A more accurate reading of the scripture passage may help. The term “light” is not really the best translation.
The passage would be more properly read if the description of light was actually “well fitting.” The passage refers to a yoke, the wooden frame that was put on an ox so as to pull the load. The making of yokes was a real art because a well-fitting yoke would make a load easier to pull. The load was the same; it is just that a good yoke made it easier to haul.
The message here is that union with Christ changes the experience of our lives from the rock-rolling image of Sisyphus or some pathetic ending of a French existentialist novel. Although we do not fully understand why certain things occur which make our lives burdensome, we do know that these burdens are shared with us by a God who has revealed himself by means of a loving and compassionate heart.