By Lorenz S. Centino, Jr.
Matthew 11: 25 - 30
25 At that time Jesus declared, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes;
26 yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.
27 All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:
A BLESSED FRIDAY and SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS TO ALL!
Life can easily become miserable when our minds and hearts are set to the troubles, problems and worries in life. This is the attitude of the pessimist. When one starts the day thinking and anxious about the problems, hardships and troubles of life, one can easily lose the appetite for life. Life becomes a burden. Life becomes a tragedy that one has to face everyday with full of angst and fear. Life becomes a curse. One can easily gives up life and wants to face death.
Everyone has the choice to be happy. Such choice starts by counting the blessings of life rather than the problems, hardships one goes through with life. By focusing on the blessings of life one finds a lot of reasons to smile and be grateful for despite the troubles and hardships in life. With such kind of focusing, full of optimism, life becomes a gift to face each day with excitement and passion.
In the Gospel today Jesus bids to come to him those of us who feel burdened and heavily laden of life’s struggles for he will give us rest. For us to find REST in him, Jesus asks us to “Take my YOKE upon you, and LEARN from me; for I am GENTLE and LOWLY of HEART.” A yoke is that piece of wood, or of any material, that is put on the neck of a cow, for example, to pull anything, usually a cart or carriage, or even a plow attached to it. In this context, Jesus then speaks of TAKING UP upon us his yoke to symbolize his readiness and availability to HELP CARRY our burden so for us to find REST. Indeed, with Jesus every trouble will become easy to carry. Especially so when the BURDEN is so HEAVY that it will be an opportune time that Jesus will be more closer to us and would CARRY US UP!
The Gospel today magnificently pictures to us the SACRED HEART of Jesus FULL of CONCERN for us. He is one that will never leave us alone. He is our true COMPANION. But we need to YOKE OURSELVES first with/to JESUS for us to have a true, dependable and faithful REFUGE. We need to be in FULL COMMUNION with him, uniting everything in us with what is his. We must attach ourselves to the TRUE VINE, Jesus himself, so we can be what we should be and find REST in him when everything gets rough and heavy.
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