7/9/2023 - 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Making sense of Human Frailty
Some of the common themes in homilies that we hear in Church are that we are God’s children and disciples of Christ, and we are the kingdom of God. While this is true, the lived experience in challenging times tends to question these foundational beliefs. And that is the hurting truth: just because we're God's children doesn't mean we won't go through hardships. The severity of the storms is not mitigated. Being a child of God is often equated with some sort of Disneyland Fast Pass for life's difficulties, and this idea seems to be widely held. We often pray that we get preferential treatment at the waiting line of a doctor’s appointment or let off with a smile for speeding because we are God’s favorites.

     It is clear, throughout the Gospels, that Jesus is understanding of human frailty and our grousing. Jesus has a deeper insight into our individual personalities than we do. He longs for us to come to Him with our troubles, knowing full well that in doing so, we will find the solace we so desperately need. He tells us to break off into a separate group and relax, just as He did with His first group of followers. Being known, understood, accepted, and accompanied is a form of "rest" that helps us regain our strength and enthusiasm. He shares the burden with us both. Jesus wants us to ask Him for assistance with our load. We have a fatal tendency to put our faith in our own resources rather than in God.

      In dealing with our human frailty, our first step is to become His disciples and join Him along the path of constant dialogue, accept His mercy. God's grace is limitless and immeasurable. When we accept Jesus' invitation to become His disciples, we are given hope for the future and fulfillment in this life.

Second, Jesus did not teach His followers to reject all forms of authority. Instead, Jesus gives us His yoke to bear. To take up Jesus' yoke means to carry out the  New Law by loving one another as he has loved us. He aspires to show us that by following Him, we can learn God's will. By taking on "Jesus' yoke," we enter into fellowship with Him and find meaning in our sufferings through participation in the mystery of His Cross and His work of salvation.

           This will make more sense if we understand the concept of ‘yoke’ according to the interpretation of ancient Judaism. A term for the Law that appears in rabbinic writings (Mishnah, 2 Baruch 41:3) is rendered here as "the yoke." Jesus is employing a metaphor here. The Old Testament's 613 commandments known as the Mosaic Law "yoked" Israel. The Law was beneficial, and it was through it that Israel finally found peace.

       The problem was that religious authorities in Jesus’ time had piled on top of these God-given laws thousands of additional rules devised by humans. This yoke, according to Jesus, is too heavy for the people. "The Jews did not consider the Law cruel slavery but a gift," writes Mark Moore in The Chronological Life of Christ. It was evidence that they were the chosen people of God.

         A person who accepts the yoke of the Law does so voluntarily, subjecting themselves to God's direct rule in order to do His will. But the Pharisees made God's Law into an intolerable burden by adding so many rules to it. To be yoked with Jesus is to be released from all of that. Matthew interpreted Jesus' yoke not as a commitment to a set of rules, but commitment to the person who stood in for God among humans. This will lead us to a personal relationship with Christ, and He is ‘yoked’ to us to lead us through this life to a future when our human frailty will give way to a life of eternal bliss.

Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O.