18 July 2024 - Thursday of the 15th week "B"
Isaiah 26:7-19; Matthew 11:28-30
Homily
We continue our reading of Matthew's Chapter 11, in which he has gathered together various brief sayings of Jesus. Some of these words have been placed elsewhere by the other Evangelists; others, like the one we have just read, are unique to Matthew. It would be futile to try to find the precise situation in which these words were spoken by Jesus. They are small, isolated texts or stories that circulated in the early Church before being grouped together in our Gospels. They have value and force in their own right, independently of any context.
In today's short text, Jesus contrasts his Law of love with the heavy-handed and severe legalism of the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law. The "yoke" was a traditional expression in the Old Testament to designate the Law. When Jesus said "Come to me, all you who labour under a burden", he was addressing those oppressed by the interpretations of the Law imposed by the Scribes and Pharisees. Let's remember his invective: "Woe to you, lawyers, because you load people with burdens that are impossible to bear and you yourselves do not touch these burdens with one of your fingers". To those who are oppressed in this way, he first promises rest for their souls.
He invites them to take upon themselves his law ("Take my yoke upon you"), his law of love, and to become his disciples ("learn from me"), for he is gentle and humble of heart. Then he repeats that those who take this yoke upon themselves will find rest. And why? - Because this yoke, or this law, is easy and the burden he places on his disciples' shoulders is light.
So let us not see in the Law of the Gospel, or in the laws of the Church, or in the rules of our monastic life, heavy burdens that we must bear ascetically in order to gain merit, but let us see concrete expressions of a law of love that must free us and allow us to run with a free and open heart, as Saint Benedict says, along the paths of the Gospel.
Armand Veilleux