Fourteenth Sunday of the Year :  Zec 9: 9-10; Rom 8: 9, 11-13; Mt 11: 25-30 

Come to me, All you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest….. my yoke is easy and my burden  light.
This is an imagery taken from the daily association of a farmer who used the yoke, and the carpenter who made the yoke. There is no human being on earth who never had a burden to carry and a yoke to shoulder. It can be sickness, trials, difficulties, betrayals, break up of relationships and the like.

It is a human tendency to mourn over our inabilities and blame God. We look at others’ talents, blessings, wealth, health and achievements.  In this despair we fail to appreciate our abilities and talents. When we are tested with trials we ask God Why me? And we fail to count the innumerable blessings that we have received.

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.

From the world over, he received letters from his fans, one of them conveyed: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease?".

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over--50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach the Wimbledon, 4 to semi-finals, 2 to finals. When I was the one holding the cup, I never asked God "Why me?".

And today in pain, I should not be asking GOD "why me?"

If we can have this attitude   we will not feel that our life is overburdened with problems.  God has designed our life only according to our ability. When we compare our sufferings with that of others often we find ours problems are nothing. It is very good to remember the quote, "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet. Every heavy burden in our life will become light, if it is accepted in love.

There is an old story which tells how a man came upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy, who was lame, upon his back. "That's a heavy burden for you to carry," said the man. "That's not burden," came the answer. "That's my wee brother."

The burden which is accepted in love and carried in love is always light. A mother never feels bringing up a child a heavy burden.  A mother will never feel spending sleepless nights with the suffering child a burden. A mother will never feel teaching a little child to walk is a heavy burden. Because it is done out of love. So when we do things out of love what seems to be heavy burden for others will become joyful.  Modern culture, demands of the society and work pressure have turned little joys of family into a heavy burden.

We need to be freed from unnecessary burdens: Jesus lays the light burden of his commandment of love on us and yokes us with himself, giving us his strength through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is also interested in lifting off our backs the burdens that suck the life out of us, so that he can place around our necks his own yoke that brings to us and to others through us, new life, new energy, and new joy. We are called, not only to find peace, refreshment and rest for ourselves, but also to live the kind of life through which others, too, may find God's peace, God's refreshing grace, and the joy of placing their lives in God's hands.

How can we unload our burdens on the Lord. The main purpose of our personal and family prayers and Divine Worship in the Church is to help us learn to unload our burdens. During the Holy Mass in our parish church, we place our stress-filled lives on the altar and allow Jesus to cool down the overheated radiators of our hectic lives.  We also unload the burdens of our sins and worries on the altar and offer them and ourselves to God during the Holy Mass. 

In the second reading, Paul tells the first-century Roman Christian community about two yokes, namely, the “flesh” and the “Spirit,” and challenges them to reject the heavy and fatal yoke of the flesh and accept the light yoke of the Spirit of Jesus.

 Let us take a few minutes to reflect and see how the little burdens in family can be turned into acts of joy; how the little challenges at work can be made into joyful moments. These little acts will make our life happy and meaningful. But let’s without fail remember that Jesus is the only one who can lighten our burdens, because he took our burdens of sins.