Tuesday, May 15, 2012

His yoke is easy, and His burden light?

28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt 11: 28-30)

By Simcha Fisher

What quotable verses. They've made their way into the scriptural rosary our family uses, and we regularly sing them at Mass as part of a hymn. You can tell from the tune that it's meant to be a comforting and reassuring idea: take a load off, you'll feel better.

But is that true? Is this what the verse means? For once I'm not asking rhetorically -- I really don't know. I do know that this is the kind of thing that makes it easy for people to shrug off the Bible as a whole, if it's going to be full of things that seem to have nothing to do with our actual lives.

[...]

I understand that we can unite our suffering with Christ's -- that we can elevate any pain or sorrow, and that none of it is lost, none of it has to be in vain. But that makes it worthwhile; that rescues it from futility. It doesn't make it easy or light. I guess I just don't understand why Christ used those particular words.

Read the full article from the National Catholic Register by Simcha Fisher http://www.ncregister.com/blog/simcha-fisher/easy-and-light/#ixzz1uze4fVI6

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