My grandfather, Kenneth Kennedy, used to have a brush-factory in Dublin, which later turned into an art store and gallery, which is still going today. 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 was probably more of a burden from a business point of view, than anything else. Once, a 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, ‘I can’t throw him out, he has nowhere else to go.’ His friend said, ‘Kenneth, you’ll never make a good business man,’ and he was probably right.
Most people I know have to work hard to make a living 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. I heard the CEO of one of the big pharmaceutical companies say, ‘We are not in the business of helping people. We are in the business of making money for our shareholders.’ And a few years ago a director who had been hired to make one of the big auto companies in France more efficient said that those they didn’t need would either leave through the door or the window, referring to suicide. In order to force people to quit many employees had been given humiliating tasks in the company. The result of all this is that it causes a lot of stress at work. Financial pressure is one of the biggest burdens people carry. It is also one of the biggest causes of marriage problems.
Where do you turn to when you feel that you can not keep going? Who do you turn to for compassion and support? Hopefully friends and family, but not always. In the readings today Jesus tells us to turn to him, because He knows the pressures we are under, the burdens we carry. God is 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. The Lord 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. It can be 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 God is interested in everything we do, down to the most ordinary things and down to the most intimate details. 'Every hair on your head has been counted.' (Luke 12:7).
One of the great tragedies of our time is the high number of suicides, especially among our young people. No doubt there are probably many reasons for it, but I am sure that one of the biggest reasons is because people have lost faith and so they have lost hope, because they don’t know what to turn to. How do you keep going when everything seems impossible? We need a source of strength, something, or someone 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. 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? That is also why it is so important that we pass on our faith to the next generation, so that they too will have the hope that comes from faith.
Jesus also says, ‘No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ If you have faith in God—and being here would suggest you do—it is because Jesus has chosen to reveal the Father to you. Jesus decided to make the Father known to you, which is why you are drawn here. You didn’t just stumble upon God. Jesus revealed himself specifically to you. Even if you were brought up Catholic, just because you learnt about the faith, doesn’t mean that you have faith. It still has to be revealed to us in some way. Otherwise it is just another subject.
Remember when Jesus asked the Apostles who people thought He was and Peter said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus then said to Peter, ‘You are blessed, because you didn’t come to this conclusion by yourself. God the Father revealed it to you.’ (Matt 16:17). Jesus chose to reveal the Father to each of us, individually and He will continue to reveal more and more of himself to us if we remain open. The more our faith grows, the more it will make sense of what our life on earth is about. Then as our faith grows, we pass it on to others by bearing witness to what we believe in, by the way we live.
Three things in particular that God has given us to help us are the
1. Word of God, to guide and direct us. Everything we need to know to guid and direct us in this life is found in the Scriptures.
2. Confession, so that we can get up again as often as we fall, so that we never become discouraged.
3. And above all, the Eucharist, where we can receive Jesus himself, every day if we wish.
Do you want to know what God has to say to you? Read the Scriptures, because that is one of the primary ways that God speaks to us. Think of all the information we take in each day: advertising, news programs, chat shows, social media. What could possibly be more important than what God has to say to us. What do I fill my mind with?
Jesus said, ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be filled with darkness.’ (Matt 6:22-23). Whatever I fill my mind with is what I will also bring to the world. If I fill myself with angry arguments and nothing but negative thoughts about the world, then that is what I will bring to the world. We don’t need more angry people, we need people filled with light and only God can fill us with that light.
Think also of the opportunity Jesus gives us to receive him each day. What could possibly be more important than this? What greater strength could we ask for than Jesus himself in the Eucharist.
The burdens that we are faced with each day, can be difficult, but the Lord assures us that He is with us and wants to share the load with us, if only we will allow him to. They are his words in Scripture.
“Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and these things will be given to you as well. ‘Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
“Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.”
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