Pastor's Note for the
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Pastor’s Note for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
May the Lord give you His peace.
There is nothing heavier than an empty heart. You could probably twist that into a clever riddle. Medically speaking this wouldn’t make much sense. Anyone, however, who has experienced an empty heart could certainly connect with this on an emotional and/or spiritual level. An empty heart usually describes a life without love as St. Paul references in his letter to the Corinthians: “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal…if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2) An experience of isolation or disconnection from family or friends or of being treated as if he or she is invisible can leave a person feeling very much unloved. Sometimes an empty heart is a result of selfish choices or a life lived in fear of pain and discomfort that leads to the avoidance of any kind of sacrifice or act of charity to help another. This can leave a person feeling unloving. In either case, the experience of this lack of love can leave a heart feeling very burdened by loneliness, sadness, depression, despair and unfulfillment.
What comfort and hope the words of Jesus bring to us in today’s Gospel when we hear Him say to us, “come to Me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.” He came into the world for this very purpose. Maybe we are like the woman in the Gospel burdened by sin who washed the feet of our Lord with her tears and dried them with her hair. Our heart, like hers, is made light again by His mercy and forgiveness. Maybe we are like Simon of Cyrene, caught up in daily routines and worldly concerns, who had to be forced to help Jesus bear the burden of that heavy cross. Think of the irony of this situation. Who was really helping whom? As Simon shifted some of the burden of that heavy wood onto his shoulders, Jesus shifted all of the burden of Simon’s heavy heart into His. Through a piece of the cross Simon received a peace he had never known before.
“Come to Me,” Jesus says. He is calling you and I to His cross, where we like Simon, place our burdens where all burdens are placed and carried by Whom all burdens are carried. “Give it to me,” He says, “and I’ll give you rest.” Does this mean we leave our burden there and go home to our hammocks? Or rather, do we remain in worship and thanksgiving with the Blessed Mother and St. John the Beloved, in awe that we could be loved so much? There is no greater rest than this, to rest in the peace of a Lamb’s love. This is the Mass.
*****
Our young people will be receiving our Lord for the first time in Holy Communion beginning this week! Please keep them in your prayers. May their excitement and devotion witness to the great gift of our Lord’s presence in the Holy Eucharist. Congratulations boys and girls!!
May God bless our nation this Independence Day weekend and lead us on the path to peace in the world so we may know eternal peace in His kingdom.
Your local shepherd,
Fr. Tom