Ordinary Time - Week 14a
Helping others to carry their burdens
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)Jesus behaved towards people in a way very different from the way many of the Pharisees behaved towards them. He came to free men from the heaviest of their burdens by taking them upon himself. "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Close to Christ, all our efforts and indeed all those things we find most difficult to bear if we are to fulfil God's Will become even pleasant. Sacrifice offered with Christ does not bring with it a feeling of harsh rebelliousness, but rather one of joyful giving. He bore upon himself our sorrows and our weightiest burdens. The Gospels give us a constant example of his concern for all men. Saint Gregory the Great writes that everywhere He left examples of his mercy. He raises the dead, cures the blind, the lepers, the dumb, and frees those possessed by the devil. There are occasions when He does not even wait for the sick person to be brought to him, but says: I will come and heal him. Even at the moment of his own death He shows his concern for the people around him. He gives himself up to death lovingly; He is the expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
We must imitate Our Lord not only by avoiding causing unnecessary worries to others, but by helping people to bear the worries they already have. Whenever possible we will help others to fulfil their human task. We will help them to carry the burdens that life itself imposes on them: "When you have finished your work do your brother's, helping him; for Christ's sake, so tactfully and so naturally that no one - not even he - will realise that you are doing more than what injustice you ought. This, indeed, is virtue befitting a son of God!" (Saint JosemarÃa)
We should never think that any act of self-denial or sacrifice offered for the good of another is more than we should do. Charity should stimulate us to show our regard for others in very specific ways. It should lead us to look for opportunities of making ourselves useful, of lightening the burdens of others and of giving joy to all those we are able to help in any way, even though we know that we will never do as much as we should.
We should always try to relieve others from whatever seems to weigh them down, just as Christ would have done in our place. Sometimes this will mean our doing some small act of service. At times it will mean giving a word of encouragement or of hope. At others we will help some one to glance up at the Master so that he comes to see his situation in a more positive light; it. may be a situation which had seemed to overwhelm him simply because up till then he had felt he must face it alone. We should think too of those aspects of our behaviour with which sometimes, without really meaning to, we make life a little harder for others, our whims and fancies, our rash judgements, negative criticism, a lack of consideration for others, an unkind word.