Well here we are trying to get into the holiday mood as the corona virus lockdown is easing. While many people will be taking the time to get away as things ease we spare a thought for all those who may not get away for a break this year .
One of the most wonderful things about the person of Jesus has been and continues to be, his special love for ordinary people like us with all our faults and failings. This love is seen in a particular way within the two statements that he makes in this Sundays Gospel reading. The first is in his prayer to God: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’ The second is in his Invitation to all of us: ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.’ Why did he say this? The answer comes across very clearly so many times in the gospels, and may be summed up in just one word – COMPASSION. For example: – The plight and tears of the widow of Nain touches his heart to the core: ‘Don’t cry,’ he says to her, before bringing her son back to life.
He is moved with compassion at the plight of a leper begging for help (Mk 4:41), for two blind men sitting at the side of a road and pleading for mercy (Mt 20:29-34), and for a crowd of people with nothing to eat (Mk 8:2). In each case he responds to their sufferings with the power, love, compassion and care of God. To be a Christian and to have the light of faith to guide our steps in the neo-pagan darkness of today’s world, is a gift, and a blessing from God, for which we can never thank Him enough. So, in the here and now of our daily lives the big question for each of us has to be whose side are we on? Are we on the side of Jesus, that is the side of compassion, kindness, help, healing, and mercy? Or on the side of the scribes and Pharisees who are amongst us even today and they are – fierce, fault-finding, heartless, and critical, people without much compassion. Will we take our cue from their cruel, harsh, and insensitive judgments and actions? Or will we take our inspiration from what we see in Jesus, and from his touching compassionate outreach to the poor and the broken when he said ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. This, then, is a clear invitation for us to slow down.
Let us resist the temptation to join the mad rush in this world’s rat race especially these days when we are coming out from the darkness of the COVID19 lockdown and getting back to a new sort of normal. There is more to life than speed. As the saying goes, “The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”. This time of return to normal is also an invitation for us to move to a life of simplicity. Happiness does not consist in having more, but in being contented with what we have. Jesus invites us, “Come to me!” And He waits for us so let us take up our rest .Over these past four months of lockdown I have found many people taking up the opportunity to take the rest that Jesus talks about and many have found their true selves within the quietness despite the pandemic madness that is around. Let us remember the words of Jesus as we go back out into the world with all its problems and opportunities ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.’
Fullerton T 