WORN OUT WITH IT

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mh4KQcGXlEI&t=538s

Come to me all you who are weary and
find life burdensome and I will give
you rest. For my yoke is easy and my
burden light.
Matthew 11

Seven kids in a small house! I don’t know how my mother did it! She was one of the most generous persons in the whole world, not only to us kids, but to her neighbors as well. She was what I would call “totally selfless.” She was an old-fashioned country mother. Besides giving birth to seven kids, she cleaned, cooked, did laundry, ironed, raised a huge garden, sewed, canned food, raised and slaughtered chickens, helped us with homework, taught us our prayers, took care of us when we were sick and even played with us! I don’t know how she did it, day in and day out, her whole life long, until she finally died of cancer at 58! Every once in a while, the burdens of motherhood weighed her down, sometimes to the breaking point! Even though she loved us and never complained outright, she let us know that she would love to have a break from the burdens of motherhood. “All I want is a little peace and quiet, a small white house with a few flowers in the yard!” It never occurred to us that she wanted that without us! She loved us very much. She did not regret the disciplines of motherhood. She only wanted a little relief, every once in a while. Poor woman! She had to die to get the “peace and quiet” she longed for! 

As I reflected in my blog post last week, personally, I am getting sick and tired these days of trying to stay safe! Just when I thought it might be safe to go out and about, I am told every night on the news that the pandemic in Kentucky is spiking upward! If it would help, I would stand out on my deck and scream as loud as I can! The only thing that stops me is the realization that the neighbors might call the police and have me arrested. Then it would become a classic case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Besides, I would hate to see my photo in the Courier Journal under the headlines, "Local priest loses his mind and is arrested for being a noise nuisance!" 

I have found that when I get into a state of mind like this, it is at least a temporary relief to think of others who are in a worse state than I am in! I know in my heart of hearts that what I am going through is an "aggravation," not a real "problem." I know that there are people out there who have real problems. 

I try to think of the "wounded warriors," the men and women who have missing limbs, brain damage and paralysis because of war injuries. I suspect that most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't begin to imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of the many senior citizens, especially those who are alone and poor, living like prisoners in unsafe neighborhoods, without anyone to visit them and without basic health care. I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of the many trapped victims of spouse and child abuse who have nowhere to run and who are forced to live, day in and day out, in fear of their lives! I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of the many children who are bullied every day of their lives, crying themselves to sleep with worry about how to navigate their next day! I think of the shame, fear and powerlessness they feel, often in silence. I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of those who are seriously addicted to drugs or alcohol and feel they have to sell their dignity in a host of ways just to keep going. The shame, pain and fear that most of them are drowning in is something they feel they can't shake. I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of those unemployed families who live from hand to mouth every day, worrying where their next meal will come from, what they will do if one of the children gets sick or where they will live if they are evicted. I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of those battling health conditions like cancer, Parkinson and Alzheimer disease. Many of them are terrified when they think of what's coming next for them. I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of their situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

I try to think of my many friends and acquaintances down in the Caribbean missions who struggle with employment, food, education, travel and health issues. I suspect most of them are "sick and tired" of those situations to a degree that I can't imagine. God bless them! 

Just like motherhood and priesthood, which have the ability to give life to people and to drain the life out of people, religion has the ability to give life to people, as well as the ability to drain the life out of them. Religion at the time of Jesus was a life-draining experience. But before you rush out and condemn organized religion, know this: Jesus was not against organized religion, but an organized religion that had lost its faith! He wanted, not to condemn organized religion, but to renew it! Jesus did not abandon religion because it lost its way, any more than my mother would abandon her kids or me the priesthood, just because we are tempted sometimes to run away from it! 

Jesus uses the image of a “yoke” to talk about the discipline of religion, something that every good Jew recognized as “the Law,” ‘the bible,” if you will. Jesus was a carpenter. He knew about yokes. He made many of them. When it came to making yokes for oxen, the carpenter did not make one-size-fits-all. He took a “roughed out” yoke and then trimmed and whittled until it was “custom made” so that it would not gall the neck of the ox who wore it. Jesus says his yoke is “crestos,” which means “custom made” or “made to order.” Some translations of “crestos” say it means “easy,” but that is not quite the sense that Jesus means. It is more “easy to bear.” Using this image, Jesus says that his spiritual discipline has high expectations and demands a lot, but it is a joy to carry because it gives life! It’s sort of like that old Boys Town story when the young man who was carrying his brother said, “He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother!” Healthy religion expects a lot, but a healthy religion gives back even more! That’s what the “yoke of Jesus” is all about! 

I cannot imagine life without faith in Jesus and his life-giving discipline. Yes, my own weakness and the weakness of others, weigh me down at times, but that is nothing compared to the life-giving power that comes from walking with Jesus. Yes, I have been worn down lately, but what keeps me going is the certain knowledge that God is at work even now, in spite of this or any former or future pandemic or scandal! As my favorite old hymn goes, “Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing. How can I keep from singing?” Knowing how things will turn out when all is said and done, how can we possibly keep from singing? 

Keep the faith! Keep the faith! Our faith has fed on God’s Word, now let us go to the table and let our faith feed on nothing less than Christ’s own body and blood! Remember that faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed, can move mountains, so keep the faith! When life becomes burdensome, that faith will sustain you! 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mh4KQcGXlEI&t=538s