December 7/Second Wednesday of Advent
Come to me, all you who are toiling and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ~ Matt 11.28
Sometimes our human tendency to try to control our lives gets the better of us. We feel burdened by worries or anxieties – small daily aggravations that mount, a beloved family member or friend who is struggling with health issues, concerns about a job or financial security, a relationship difficulty. Despite the increasing heaviness of our load, we believe that we can – and should – manage it ourselves. We don’t want to let others see us struggle, and we don’t want to make ourselves vulnerable by admitting that we feel weighed down. So when a well-intentioned spouse or concerned friend offers a hand, we push them away, snapping, “I’m fine! I can handle it!” when it is painfully obvious that we are anything but fine. There is another, better way, of course: in today’s brief Gospel passage from Matthew, Christ invites us to turn our cares over to him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” The rest he offers is a deep, refreshing quiet. These are the waters of stillness (in Greek, anapausis), the “still waters” of Psalm 23 beside which the shepherd leads his sheep. And they are available to all who seek them, as Jesus makes clear in today’s Gospel. In order to receive this grace, however, we must first let go of the need to control everything ourselves and instead place our cares, and indeed our very selves, in God’s hands. As the twentieth-century Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarsjkold wrote of his fears and concerns in a lovely prayer, “I lay them now in your hands, Lord, I relax the grip in which I hold them and leave them to you.”
O God of toil and God of respite, Lift from me this day my burdens and troubles, and bestow upon me the rest that only You can give. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120722.cfm
To hear the Blind Boys of Alabama sing “Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhPg2Saj61E
