“Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
In this day and age, evil has yet again launched its greatest attack on mankind in the form of unrelenting temptations of despair, hopelessness, and fear. It almost seems that holiness is unattainable, and virtue beyond our reach. But, the Lord of hosts, the God of all consolation wishes to give us a message of hope today.
Our Lord says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light,"- Matthew 11:28-30.
The Savior of mankind is one who proclaims himself as “Meek and humble of Heart.” That is where His power is best revealed to us, and through us. And the testimony of the great apostle Paul gives proof of this indeed. Two times he wrote to the Corinthians about this; first he said, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God,” – 1Cor. 1:27-29.
Again, he wrote to the Corinthians and said, “in order that I might not become too proud, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too proud. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong,” - 2Cor. 12:7-10.
And in order to make this fact more clear, let us look at some examples from Scripture. Consider the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites. God said to Moses, “tell the Israelites to camp between Migdol and the Sea. Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘they are moving about aimlessly in the land; the desert has closed in on them.’ I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” God said, “and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord,” – Exodus 14:1-4. Tell me any other god who has ever done this!
Consider the contest between David and Goliath. We are told that, “Goliath, the Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome in appearance. The Philistine said to David, ‘am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? [he had expected to see big swords and spears]. And he cursed him. He said to David, ‘come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to animals.’ But David said to the Philistine, you come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have refused to obey,” – 1 Samuel 17:41-47. And with just a simple sling of a stone, David finished the Philistine. Power is made perfect in weakness!
Take the example of our Blessed Mother Mary. “The woman that appeared in the sky, clothed with the sun, with a moon under her feet, and on her a head a crown of twelve stars” – Revelation 12, is the one who says, “My Soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked with favor on the humility of his handmaid,” – Luke 1:46-48. And the proud are scattered in their conceit. You see, the Lord God draws a clear distinction between His power and human power. He uses what the world considers weak to shame the strong.
Now we come to the greatest battle of all time, when perceived weakness or rather humility triumphed over and destroyed the prince of pride. It was the battle between Jesus our Lord against the devil; and this is where our greatest consolation lies, and our hope strengthened. Remember that this was the hour when the devil was at its absolute best, when evil put on its greatest armor.
The scene is the crucifixion of our Lord on Calvary. I thought I knew weakness and shame, until I read the actual account of the Roman crucifixion by the 1st Century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus. He called it “the most wretched of deaths.” The Crucifixion of Jesus shows how our Lord went to the very bottom of human weakness. It was when human flesh was so cheap that it was almost reduced to nothing. [A recent comparison to this, are the events that took place at Auschwitz]. The Romans were the masters of torture. They regarded the crucifixion as a game, they completely embarrassed their victim before and during the execution. This was no ordinary execution, the roman way was the most cruel, and the most horrible crucifixion ever suffered by a victim. The Lord chose this most ugly form of death in order to reveal evil in true colors. To expose human sin completely and then wash it away by his sacred blood. You see, when we have a good idea of how much he suffered, we will know what a grave thing it is, to offend God. But the point of all this, is that, at the moment when evil seemed to have an upper hand, and all hope lost, it was then, that Jesus triumphed over evil and won victory for us. He walked out of the tomb. At the moment when evil was at its absolute best, it was defeated. Evil has no more power over us, even when everything seems hopeless, it is through weakness that the power of God will manifest. So, we should never be discouraged. We need only put our faith in Christ who says to us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.” The greatest weapon we have against evil is the virtue of humility. To always be humble before God. Remember how much Job was tested but he remained humble before God. And Job was a figure of Christ. All prophecies find their fulfilment in Christ. Let us then, stay close to the Lord whose power is made perfect through weakness.
You see, the problem we have today is that we have turned a blind eye to the Cross of Christ, hence, we have very limited knowledge of how destructive sin is. Let me tell you, sin is secretly destroying our society. [Ask Deacon Jack, he will tell you.] How many mental problems are there due to addictions, how many divorces, how many abortions, how many suicides are there? When shall we ever open our eyes to the evil that is wiping this civilization away? You see, my friends, we need inspired men and women to warn us about the great injury inflicted upon this society by sin. The Irish people had the great poet, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).
In a poem about the second coming, he writes;
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best, lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
In other words, the poet is warning the Irish people about the sin of indifference and the lack of faith. Let us return to the Cross, let us gaze once more upon the crucified, let us reclaim the truth and redefine those values that will protect our society from the evil one. Faith, Hope and Love.
Amen
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