Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 11, 2019
“Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Christ’s words, although encouraging, also seem counterintuitive. He doesn’t offer us rest by taking away our burdens. Instead, he offers us rest by giving… a better burden? In this odd twist he illuminates our greatest human strength and weakness – we must serve some goal like a lowly ox yoked to a cart. When we take a moment to admit this truth, we can see that it pervades our lives.
Christ acknowledges that as we follow him and bear his yoke, we will suffer. He wants to give us the lightest burden of suffering because, in him, it is tethered to the greatest meaning: love. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychologist, observed in the concentration camps that those who had something that they truly loved, survived the longest. They could bear their burdens with fewer negative physical side effects as if their burdens were easier because they had something to serve outside of themselves. Similar records have been made of soldiers in the field, mothers in labor, and hostages of kidnapping. Frankl later wrote Man’s Search for Meaning both as a reflection on this marvelous phenomenon and his experience of it in the camps.
Certainly, we all must carry the burdens of life but we also have the ability to intentionally ascribe meaning to our experiences. Many great minds differ in focus and opinion on how to come to this sense of meaning and purpose but, thankfully, Christ offers a profound clarity. Purposeful love. If love can make extreme situations endurable, imagine how Christ-like love could transform the mundane burdens of everyday life? If we make that our quiet goal, no matter where we may find ourselves, our yoke will be easier and our burden lighter.
Prayer
Jesus, we hear the world around us saying your burden is heavy and your yoke is too difficult, but you have told us it’s not. Your burden is light and your yoke is freeing. Serving you is sweetness. Sustain us as we continue in your service. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Damasus I, pope from the fourth century, is most famous for asking St. Jerome to translate the Bible.
Damasus was deacon in Rome and elected pope when he was 60 years old. The election was marked by opposition and even violence—he struggled against rivals for the rest of his pontificate.
He was patron to a brilliant scholar, Jerome, who served as his secretary before Damasus encouraged him to study and revise the old Latin translations of the Bible in use at the time. Today's featured image depicts Jerome presenting his translation, the Vulgate, to Damasus.
Damasus also contributed to the practice of venerating relics. He drained and opened the Christian catacombs and even wrote inscriptions for many of the graves. His own relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
As his own death neared, he penned his own epitaph. Popes before him had been buried together in a papal crypt, but he only had an inscription placed there that read, “I, Damasus, wished to be buried here, but I feared to offend the ashes of these holy ones.”
Instead, he was buried with his mother and sister in a small church. This is the epitaph that he wrote for his own grave:
“He who walking on the sea could calm the bitter waves, who gives life to the dying seeds of the earth; He who was able to loose the mortal chains of death, and after three days’ darkness could bring again to the upper world the brother of his sister Martha: He, I believe, will make Damasus rise again from the dust.”
Pope St. Damasus I, you loved God’s Word and trusted in the resurrection, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Damasus I is in the public domain. Last accessed November 21, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
