My grandfather, Kenneth
Kennedy, used to have a brush-factory in Dublin, which later turned into an art
shop, which is still going. At one stage
he employed a man as a kind of messenger boy and general ‘dog’s body’. He was a very simple man and I believe he was
probably more of a burden from a business point of view, than anything
else. One time another friend of my
grandfather’s was visiting the shop and he said to him, ‘Kenneth, why are you
still holding on to that guy?’ And my
grandfather just said, ‘Ah, shur I can’t throw him out, he has nowhere else to
go.’ The other guy said, ‘Kenneth,
you’ll never make a good business man.’
And he was probably right.
Most people I
know have to work pretty hard to hold onto their jobs and most businesses I
know—and I worked for several before I became a priest—can be quite ruthless
when it comes to letting people go if they feel they could make more money
without them. In the business world
money tends to come first and people second.
And now we are starting to have the problem of companies going to other
countries to get cheaper labour. The
result of all this is that it causes a lot of stress at work. Financial pressure is one of the biggest
burdens around and arguments over finances are one of the most common in
marriages.
Where do we
turn to when we feel that we can-not keep going? Who do we turn to for compassion and
support? In the readings today Jesus tells
us to turn to him, because he knows the pressures we are under. God is well aware of how difficult it can be and
He offers to help us.
Jesus used the
image of the ‘yoke’. The yoke was the
wooden brace that linked two animals together around the neck, in order to
split the load between them. Jesus is
telling us that He wants to help us carry the load, to take some of the burden,
but we also have to allow him to do this.
I think it is often tempting to leave God to Sundays, or to ‘religious’
things, but from all that God teaches us through the Bible, one thing that is
very clear is that He is very interested in everything we do, down to the most
ordinary level. God is well aware of the
burdens we carry and He is telling us that we need to keep coming back to him
to refill regularly, just like you have to do with your car. He is saying, ‘Let me give you the peace and
hope that you need, so that you are able to get up and go on another bit,’ but
we have to keep coming back to him regularly.
We face a
similar difficulty in all we are hearing about the world around us. So much evil, so much injustice and so much
suffering. It can be overwhelming. If we only listen to this it can make life
too difficult and we can be tempted to despair.
But if we continually come back to the Lord and listen to what He
teaches us, it keeps things in perspective.
Then we remember that God is the one in charge, that there will be
justice in the end; that evil cannot overcome the power of God. But if we only listen to what is going on in
the world, we will not remember that.
That’s why Jesus calls us to continually come to him for refuge, not
just once in a while, but every day, because we need the strength to keep going
without being overcome by the world around us.
One of the
great tragedies of our time is the high number of suicides, especially among our
young people. Recently in my home-town
of Galway, I heard that nine young people had taken their own lives in the one
weekend. Like everything else there are
probably many reasons for it, but I have no doubt that one of the biggest
reasons is because people have lost faith and they don’t know what to turn
to. How do you keep going when
everything seems impossible? We need a
source of strength, something we can continually turn to, in order to give us
renewed strength and purpose. If we
believe that this life is just passing and that there is something wonderful
waiting for us in the next life, then this gives us strength to keep going
during difficult times. We believe that
what we suffer here is only temporary, so we are prepared to put up with a
lot. But if you don’t have any faith,
what do you turn to?
Three things
in particular that God has given us to help us are the Word of God, to guide
and direct us; Confession, so that we can get up again as often as we fall; and
above all the Eucharist where we can receive Jesus himself, every day if we
wish. All of these things are pure gift
from God, to help us. Hopefully we will
continue to see them with new eyes and recognise them for the treasure which
they are.
All of us here
who have been given faith—and you have faith if you are here—I think we need to pray a lot
for our young people that God will bless them with faith and that God will show
us how we can pass on the gift of faith that He has given us.
Let me finish
with this story: Recently on the news they interviewed the oldest woman in
America: Jeralean Talley, who was born May 23, 1899. She is an African-American and she has just
turned 115. The journalist interviewing
here said, ‘What’s your secret?’ She
just pointed up to heaven and then he asked, ‘The Lord?’ She said ‘Yes. The Father got everythin’, I got nothin’. It’s all in his hands!’
‘Come to me all you who
labor and are overburdened and I will give you rest.’
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