COME TO ME AND REST
Year A-Green, Psalter Week II
Zech 9:9-10; Rom 8:9, 11-13; Mt 11:25-30
Fr. Nelson Lobo OFM Cap
STORY: One of the classic films of 1987 was The Mission. In it, a soldier, Captain Mendoza, kills his brother in a feud over a woman they both love. Afterward, desperately depressed and consumed by remorse, he feels that the only way to get rid of his burden of guilt and sin is to perform some sort of penance. So, he ties a huge net to his back, fills it with boulders, and sets himself to climb a high mountain. In the company of a priest and some others, he travels over rocks, swamps and thick brush, across rivers and through forests. You see him, cut, bruised and bleeding, a broken figure, crawling up the mountainside, the huge weight dragging behind him. From time to time, the others in the group urge him to let go of the burden. “You don’t have to carry it anymore,” they say. But he cannot leave it. Eventually, reaching the top of the mountain, he collapses, exhausted. And then a little boy comes up to him and cuts the net from him. As the net and rocks cascade down the mountainside, Mendoza is filled with a feeling of total release; his burden is gone, and he feels he has been forgiven.
When we look around at the people who attend the church, what do we see? We see people, dressed in fine clothes and wonderful make up. But if you talk to them personally, we see hurting people in need of comfort; troubled people in need of peace; sick people in need of healing. The sad fact is that we all have something that puts us under enormous pressure and stress from time to time. Weariness is simply a problem that we all face in this life. Job said that “Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).
Marshall Hayden wrote an article entitled, “Would Every Non-Hurter Please Stand Up?” He pointed out that people come to church wearing their best clothes & their best smiles. Everybody looks happy, so we assume everything is okay. But he suggested that we need to look beyond the facade & realize that the pews are full of hurting people.
- There are hurting families whose income is much less than their expenditures.
- There are hurting children who never receive appreciation or encouragement from their elders.
- There are wives who constantly suffer from drunkard or narcissistic husbands.
- There are men and women suffering from cancer, tumour, kidney problems, skin allergies, headaches and backaches who are waiting for a healing miracle.
- There are couples who have nasty fights and think of divorce.
- There are some searching for a job and those who lost their jobs.
- Then there are those of us with lesser hurts, but they look big to us: a boring job, a poor grade, a friend or parent who is indifferent. The lonely, the discouraged, they’re all here.
And it is to such people that Jesus is saying, in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary & burdened, & I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you & learn from me, for I am gentle & humble in heart, & you will find rest for your souls.” This is not to say that He will resolve every problem immediately, for Jesus clearly said that we will have trouble in this world. But He can resolve our problems if we trust in Him. In some cases, He may resolve the problem immediately. In other cases, He grants the power to endure the difficulty.
Bible is full of such stories of hurting people. Why such stories in the Bible? Why did God leave us one tale after another of wounded lives being restored? So, we could be grateful for the past? So, we could look back with amazement at what Jesus did? No! The purpose of these stories is not to tell us what Jesus did. Their purpose is to tell us what Jesus does. “In Romans 15:4 Paul wrote, ‘Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance & the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.’ These are not children’s stories, or romantic fables for entertainment or information. These are historic moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question, ‘Where is God when I hurt?’
- How does God react to dashed hopes? Read the story of Jairus.
- How does God feel about those who are ill? Stand with him at the pool of Bethesda.
- What is God’s word for the shameful? Watch as his finger draws in the dirt.
- How does God respond when there are boulders in your path? Read the resurrection stories of Lazarus and Jesus. I know that there are stones in your path. Stones that trip and stones that trap. Stones that are too big. But have faith. Our God is so big and so mighty that there’s nothing our God cannot do.
The God who spoke still speaks. The God who forgave still forgives. The God who came still comes into our world. He comes to move the stones that we cannot move. As the first reading invites us (Zech 9:9-10) let us not worry too much but rejoice like the daughter of Zion because our Messiah comes to bring us comfort and rest. But we need to have the spirit of Christ in order to rejoice as the second reading tells us (Rom 8:9, 11-13). Jesus meek and humble of heart hear us. Amen!
“You only want what you haven’t got.” What haven’t he got? “Peace!” said Harrison Ford: The actor whose movies have grossed over 2 billion dollars
