My Burden Is Easy

As a priest, I am often called to celebrate the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick in hospital or people’s homes. The ritual I use gives today’s Gospel as one of the scripture passages that can be read. Because I have used it so often, I now know these words of St Matthew off by heart. These words have become a great comfort and encouragement to me:

Come to me you who labour and are over burdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me that I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden light.

The assurance that Jesus gives us is not that he will do away with anything that burdens us, or that all our worries and anxieties will disappear. He is not saying that being his disciple is easy. You often hear the criticism people make of religion, that it is used by people as a crutch or an escape from reality. What Jesus promises in this passage today is that, if we take on his yoke, we will find rest for our souls because his yoke is easy: because it enables us to carry his burden. The yoke he is speaking of is the yoke of being a follower of Christ.

At the time of Christ a load-bearing yoke was a carved beam, laid across the back of the neck with chains or suspension ropes at each end. People used them for hoisting and carrying heavy objects. Jesus spoke of his yoke as an easy yoke. It is his way of saying that being his disciple is not effortless but neither is it an exhausting burden. He is promising to walk beside us and hold us up, so that we can face and bear our responsibilities, and that we will find rest for our souls.

Lord give me the grace to take up the challenge of accepting the yoke that your son Jesus is offering me. ‘A yoke that is easy, restful and ultimately liberating.’ Amen