December 9/Second Wednesday of Advent
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” ~ Matt 11.28
What are your burdens right now? There are the usual workaday worries — about the well-being of friends and family members, our job status, physical health, financial condition, spiritual state. The pandemic and the election year have piled on the additional anxieties of social isolation, financial dislocation, and political disruption. This is the cargo of life that weighs us down (the Greek for “burdened” here is related to ship’s cargo or lading). While we may manage in ordinary times, many of us now feel ourselves unraveling, our nerves frayed by months of fear and uncertainty. As the holidays loom, it all feels too much to bear. How will we get through this first — or fifteenth — Christmas without a beloved mother or husband? When can we truly be with one another as the virus continues to insinuate itself into our midst? How will we manage Christmas for our children? What about that friend, that uncle, that colleague who tested positive? Submerged in anxiety, we struggle to lift our souls. At such times, it might help to heed the comforting words of Jesus, who invites us to release our heavy burdens into his hands, and ourselves into his loving arms. There, and only there, will we find rest, or in Greek, anapausis, or holy rest. This is the rest God took on the seventh day, the quiet that marks the Sabbath, the repose we take beside the “still waters” of Psalm 23 (literally, “the waters of anapausis”). It is, in short, a life-giving respite. Today, let us accept that invitation and let go of the things we carry as we rest in his presence through prayer, reading, and reflection.
Loving Lord, Relieve me this day of the burdens and sorrows that are weighing me down, and soothe my worried soul. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120920.cfm
To hear Adele Addison sing “Come Unto Him” from Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggg3atbJy90
