Burdens Borne by Love
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Zechariah 9:9–10 / Psalm 145:1 / Romans 8:9, 11–13 / Matthew 11:25–30
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Reflecting on the Word
By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger
I lie in bed half awake and half asleep, thinking about “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In this blurred mental state, scenes flash through my head.
The burden is light? Ponderous chords from the musical Les Misérables say not. Prisoners sweat in the sun. Their backs are hopelessly bent. How can the yoke be easy? Oppression and misery and pain; there is so much bondage in the world.
In the darkness behind my eyelids, my mind zooms to yesterday. I see my friend. I recall the hospital bed in her living room: a time she will never forget. Her husband died in that bed while they were saying the rosary.
I see a young mother and her six-month-old son. Rocking and feeding, playing and interacting—all day and all night, she is yoked to that boy. Babies are hard work.
So why are some yokes easier to bear? There was a deep love between my friend and her dying husband. There was warmth in my daughter-in-law’s eyes yesterday when she looked into the eyes of my grandson. We will do difficult things for love. Love makes the burden light.
Sin makes the burden heavy. We cannot act as though everything is not so bad after all. Oppression is wrong. Misery harms. Prisoners matter. We carry the burdens of others—not nameless faces in a movie, but the needy folks who surround us. Yet the joy of discipleship is that we do not carry that weight alone.
Now I am ready to wake up. The love of this world is strong. The burden of the world is heavy. This is a paradox bigger than I can shoulder. I get out of bed, grateful that this world has a Savior, and more grateful that it is not me.
Consider/Discuss
- God is the one who wants to save us, to carry our burdens, to set us free. How do we resist that? How do we burden ourselves down?
- The joy of love makes life lighter. Who has helped you to carry your cross?
Living and Praying with the Word
Jesus, you ask us to be childlike, to trust you to carry our burdens. Love has lifted us up. Sin has torn us down. You know that we have experienced both. Lord, give us the strength this day to do all that we can today for whomever you put in our path. We are willing to work hard to make a difference in this world, but you are going to have to carry it, for we cannot. Come, Savior of the world, come!