WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:07.440 One of the greatest misconceptions about the Christian life is that if we follow Christ, life will become easy. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:10.960 This is a subject we've talked about many times here. 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:13.199 Jesus never makes that promise. 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.559 In fact, he says something that almost sounds contradictory. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:21.760 Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden light. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.160 How can a yoke be easy? 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:26.480 How can a burden be light? 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:31.760 After all, many of the people listening to Jesus that day were carrying tremendous burdens. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.320 They lived under the Roman occupation. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:36.479 They struggled to feed their families. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:37.840 Many were sick. 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:40.159 Some had lost loved ones. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:41.920 They knew suffering. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.240 Jesus wasn't pretending those burdens didn't exist. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.439 He was offering them a different way to carry them. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:55.359 A yoke was a wooden beam placed over two oxen so they could pull together. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:00.640 Typically an older, stronger ox was yoked beside a younger one. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:10.959 The younger ox still walked, it still worked, but it was a stronger ox that carried most of the weight and kept the younger one moving in the right direction. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:13.840 That's the image Jesus gives us. 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:18.000 He never says you will have to do you will have no cross. 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:20.879 No, he says yoke yourself to me. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:22.799 That's the difference. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:24.879 And the difference is everything. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:29.599 When we carry life by ourselves, even small burdens can become overwhelming. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:36.879 When we carry them with Christ, even heavy crosses become bearable because we are no longer carrying them alone. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:45.120 That's why Jesus begins with those beautiful words, come to me, all of you who labor and are burdened. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:49.359 Notice he doesn't say, Come to me in your life when it's perfect. 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:50.640 He doesn't say that. 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:53.840 No, he says, Come to me, all of you. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:55.040 Come. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:58.079 That's the heart of Christianity. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:02.640 Not first a list of commandments, not first a moral code. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:05.519 It's an invitation to a relationship. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:11.120 And the first reading from Isaiah speaks about this relationship, this remarkable tenderness. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:16.319 The prophet says, Your name is the desire of my soul. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.919 My soul yearns for you in the night. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:24.240 Isaiah understands something that our culture often forgets. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:27.439 Every human heart is searching for something. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:32.800 We spend our lives looking for happiness, for security, peace, and fulfillment. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:35.120 Some search it in success. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:42.560 Others look for it in money and pleasure, in things, others look for it in recognition and applause. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:48.800 And yet even when we obtain those things, there's often this lingering emptiness, this void. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:50.000 Why? 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:55.759 Well, because the deepest desire of the human heart is not for things, it is for God. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:04.560 A very famous line that we've said many times, Saint Augustine expressed it beautifully, our hearts are restless until they rest in you. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.800 That restlessness is not a flaw in our design. 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:12.800 It is the way of God drawing us back to Himself. 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:15.039 Isaiah also says something profound. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:23.919 He says, O Lord, you mean out of peace to us, for it is you who have accomplished all that we have done. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.280 How different that is from the spirit of our age. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:35.520 We're taught to believe that everything depends on us, our success, our future, that we have to control everything, our security, our happiness. 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:44.800 Well, the result is that many people are exhausted, anxious, tired, and not simply physical, spiritually. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:50.240 They carry responsibilities that were never meant to rest entirely on their shoulders. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:56.240 The Christian life is not passive, but neither is it self-reliant. 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:00.639 We work hard, we fulfill our responsibilities. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.719 We never forget that God is the one sustaining us. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.000 Everything good ultimately comes from him. 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:12.000 And that's why Jesus describes himself with two surprising words. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.039 I am meek and humble of heart. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:20.000 Because you see, the world admires power, influence, and self-promotion. 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:23.839 Jesus again and again points to humility. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:27.120 Because humility is the foundation of peace. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:34.800 A profound heart, a proud heart is always anxious, always comparing, always trying to prove itself. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:42.560 A humble heart knows that it is loved by God, and therefore does not need to earn its worth before the world. 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:45.680 There's this beautiful irony in today's gospel. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:51.519 The one who carries the weight of the universe invites us to let him carry the weight of our lives. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:53.120 That's not weakness. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:54.639 That is faith. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:00.319 The saints discovered that peace is not found in having fewer responsibility or fewer problems. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:00.800 No. 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:10.240 Peace comes from walking so closely with Christ that his strength becomes a greatness for us, becomes our everything. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:19.040 When we're yoked to him, we discover that the burden has not disappeared, but the one carrying it with us has made all the difference. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:21.199 Christ is there. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:26.160 Come to me, all of you who are tired and burdened. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:27.120 Amen.