“Unless and until we rest in God, we will never risk for God.”

“Rest is not idleness and is not relaxation; it is a culmination, a fullness of gathered peace, like the fullness and stillness of waters gathered to a flood tide.”  - Caryll Houselander: (1901 – 1954: was a lay Roman Catholic ecclesiastical artist, mystic, popular religious writer and poet.)

Gospel Text: (MT 11:28-30)

Jesus said to the crowds:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

Jesus first tells His disciples, “I will give you rest.” But then He explains His meaning by bidding them, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... and you will find rest.” This second sentence qualifies the first in a significant way.

Jesus gives us rest when we take His yoke upon ourselves and learn from Him. We might be confused by the idea of a yoke bringing us rest: after all, with a yoke comes a burden to pull. Who wants to consider himself as a beast of burden?

But aren’t we always carrying a burden throughout the course of life in this valley of tears? The burden doesn’t accompany the yoke. The burden is ours by virtue of our fallen nature. The yoke of Jesus is simply the gift by which we gain the leverage to bear our burden with some composure. By tradition, of course, we identity the Cross as Jesus’ yoke, and certainly it is through this gift that we shoulder all that weighs heavy in life.