The recent pandemic too shined a spotlight on the economic destitute who suffered from the loss of employment. Not only did the poor suffer much from the lockdown. When resources were stretched, movements were restricted and freedom was curtailed, the demands placed on generosity merely accentuated one’s compassion fatigue. How not to be tired? In fact, last Sunday we were invited to grow in generosity.
Therefore, the Gospel is refreshing because Christ promises that He will ease our burden. How is one to grasp this? The 1st reading flows with the Gospel even though it feels like the Holy Week’s introduction to Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The Prophet describes the humility of the King who enters His Kingdom without fanfare, riding on a donkey. In the Gospel, Jesus thanks the Father for concealing the truth from the learned, the wise and the powerful and instead He chooses to reveal the truth to children who in this case represent those who are humble.
The context for Christ’s prayer was the experience of rejection by the Galilean towns. Those who seemed to know who He was could not accept the miracles He had performed. In this prayer, Jesus revealed two things. Firstly, His identity and secondly, His relationship with the Father. Much of Jesus’ identity was hearsay and many did not know who He truly was except of course the Father. The identity of Jesus was His Father. And in terms of knowing the Father, what Jesus revealed shone a light into the mystery of the life of the Blessed Trinity.
This knowledge is now made available by Father through Jesus to the humble. The Trinity remains a mystery because the more we know about God in Himself, there is still a lot more we will never know about Him. Humility is the key to knowing God better and it is this same meekness, the same abnegation that allows us to embrace the invitation of Jesus. He asks those who are burdened to approach Him to find solace and rest. But then, a generation exhausted by the incessant cries of humanity’s need finds rest elusive. From extreme hunger to climate change, how to believe that we can find solace in God when we are teetering on the edge of extinction?
Yet, the message of Jesus remains relevant. He invites us to give up our burden for His. It is indeed a radical invitation because it requires humility and trust in Him. Somehow, our “can-do” or “self-motivated” or “self-help” spiritualities chafe at such a suggestion that we should actually acquiesce rather than attempt a solution for our mounting crises. The Lord reminds us that sorrows, hardships and pains, no matter terrible they are, cannot destroy us without His permission. In other words, trust Him just like how He would respond when we are generous. If last weekend was an invitation to generosity, this Sunday is again a call to generously trust Him as we humbly take on His yoke.
God will never betray our trust. The challenge is that we operate under the assumption that trusting God equates to a smooth path. We mistakenly assume that when we have God on our side, we will not have to face problems. This is false hope or expectation because the true meaning of God on our side is that whatever challenges we face, He will always be there to help us.
The humility is to acknowledge that we need Him. This pandemic has exposed the truth of who we are. Man was brought to his knees facing a virus could have wiped him out. At the peak of a protracted pandemic, many turned to God conceding that overcoming this flu was not up to them but up to God’s benevolence. Sadly though, this post-pandemic period has become one of forgetfulness. Now that we are past the danger, in a bid towards achieving pre-pandemic production, we seem to believe that we are back in control—frantic to catch up with lost opportunities and lost time.
In this process, we can back ourselves into a corner forgetting that God is in charge. We stress ourselves up and the load becomes heavier not because God has laid it upon our shoulders but rather, we have created our own burden as we blindly pursue the god of progress, success and achievement.
The result is pretty simple. We have returned to a default setting where we turn to God only when we are helpless making God the last port of call instead of Him being the one we turn to first before all else. The god-of-last-call is simply a mechanical deity of the vending machine where we slot in some prayers for him to dispense the solution we need. Any wonder why we become disappointed with God because He does not play according to our tune?
Like the Collect we heard at the beginning, “Come to me” is truly an overture to joyfully allow God to take the lead. It is way of life that permits God to take charge because He can be trusted not to fail us. “Not failing us” has nothing to do with Him fulfilling what we want but rather that He will see to it that everything will work out according to His plans. Go to Him all you who are burdened and He will give you rest. Compassion fatigue is not an exhaustion of the generous and trusting but a weariness of souls who attempt to carry the burdens of world all by themselves.
The World Youth Day is around the corner and there is a young man who might inspire us to turn to the Lord. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, not well-known, not a priest but definitely an inspiring icon for many self-absorbed young and not so young people. Pier Giorgio died at the tender age of 25 but for such a short life, he embodied the Beatitudes and the joy of the Gospel to the full. Even though he was dying from polio caught from serving the poor, he thought nothing of himself but instead focused on the funeral of his grandmother who had just died. He said, “As long as faith gives me strength, I will always be joyful”. In a photograph of his depicting him climbing up a summit, he scribbled “verso l’alto” meaning “to the heights”. This is a spirit who knows that the Shepherd of souls is in charge and not even death is ever going to hold him back from going towards the Lord for His yoke is indeed light.
