July 7, 2002

Father Owen's Homilies

Homily for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 7, 2002

Our first reading is taken from the prophet Zechariah. This passage is used on Palm Sunday: “Your King shall come to you riding on an ass.” In the Gospel passage Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden light” The yoke and the burden of Jesus is the Cross. So the First and the Third reading seem to tie together. But I ask myself how carrying the cross can be both easy and light.

Last week a friend of mine who has lung and throat cancer told me he was having a hard time not throwing himself in front of a truck roaring down Highway 36. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I think of Fr. Dennis Schmitz who is being asked to carry a heavy cross. My yoke is easy and my burden light.

I think of what I see on CNN every day from the Holy Land, the very land of Jesus, in the place where he hung on the cross. I think of mothers and two-year-old babies being shot to death. I think of whole families blown apart as they set down to the Passover Meal. My yoke is easy and my burden light.

I think of our Brazilian boy Luciano who lives with his mother and five brothers and sisters in a house hardly fit for pigs. His father is probably sleeping on a sidewalk. My yoke is easy and my burden light.

When we look only at one side of the cross, the splintery and bloody side, we have reason to begin to lose hope. When we look at the other side, the Resurrection side, we have our very basis of Christian hope.

As we accept the rough, splintered, sweaty, cutting side of the Yoke of Jesus believing in faith that the way to Calvary leads to the Tomb of the Resurrection, we can feel the joy and peace which comes from the carrying itself. We do not look so much to the relief that will come from dropping the burden. God is hidden silently in the acceptance. We have all met people whose days were numbered but who enjoyed great peace and serenity. Those persons have tasted the sweetness of the yoke. They have been plunged into the mystery of the Cross. They have found peace.

The words of Jesus are not empty words. When Jesus says, “Come to me” he means it! Jesus knows what he is talking about. Jesus has gone before us. Jesus has been there and done that. Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart. You will find peace for yourselves.