Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Reflecting on Matthew 11:25-30
Have you ever had the blissful experience of having a burden lifted from your shoulders? Maybe you’ve been worrying something to death, and a friend finds the perfect words to set your soul at rest. Or maybe it’s a physical comfort, like having someone stronger take your heavy grocery bags, or grab your snow shovel and say, “Let me clear your walk for you.”
That’s grace. That’s Jesus, lifting away your sad spirit and replacing it with His yoke, which is always peace, consolation, perfect rest.
So here’s your summer assignment. Ride your bike to the park. Find a spot under a big, leafy tree. Lie down on your back and look up. Now, here’s the blissful part. Just stay there.
Ah. Can you feel it? That is the rest that Jesus invites you to today. Do you labor under the stress of family problems? Just lie there. Let the sun warm you. Look in awe at the thousands of astonishing things going on in that tree as it stretches to the sky.
Are you heavily burdened with illness, or unemployment, or bitter disappointment? Don’t move. Let Jesus give your soul a perfect rest as you soak in all the grace that exists in a single tree.
Let your eyes take in just a fraction of the breathless beauty that is summer, our Creator’s gift of grace. Can you hear that bird, singing in the branches? Here are the words she is singing:
Come to Him. Find rest in Him. He has already left your burdens under the Tree.
What experience have you had of a burden lifted?
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).