Homily for July 3, 2005
Liturgical Year A-Cycle I
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney
Topic: Matthew 11:28-30
+  +  +

Gospel
Mt 11:25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed:"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Indeed, I know of your weariness.  As your priest, every week I speak to many of you and very seldom does someone come by and say, “Father, I just want to tell you how great things are going.”   Inevitably there is a problem.  After a little bit of warm-up, I ask, "What is the problem?" and there are so many problems, of relationships, and money and jobs and children and aging parents, and health. So many different concerns and as a result, you are weary.  Life is wearing you out.  You need to do something about it.  You need to address this weariness and this burden you are carrying.  Otherwise, you are going to go through the rest of your life like this, (he hunches over).  We know people who do that and they are not happy campers.  As a matter fact, when we see them coming in Smiths, we go the other way. 

So, what do you do about it? How do you carry these burdens you have responsibly and not be overwhelmed by them?  Jesus tells you.  He gives advice.  He says three things.  He says first of all, “Trust me.” I am bigger than you are.  He says, “Come to me, learn from me.”  Secondly he says, "Serve others.”  It’s true that if you want someone to help another person, ask someone who is already busy, because they have that inclination to help. That’s what he means by “Take my yoke.”  In other words, put on this yoke with me, like a yoke of oxen.  Get on the other side and pull with me.  Serve others.  And finally he says, and this is very important, he says, “Be humble like me for I am humble and gentle of heart.  If you think about it, on one hand you might think what does being humble have to do with carrying burdens?  If you think of people who are truly humble, they are seldom anxious.  If you think of people who are truly humble, they are usually not anxious people, are they?  What is that connection?  Jesus had no ego problem.  He was not trying to make a good impression. We should not have ego problems either nor should we be trying to make a good impression.  Preoccupation with self is absolutely exhausting.  You will wear yourself out worrying what others think about you.  They are not going to be there at the judgment anyway.  They have no vote.  People wear themselves out trying to make a good impression.

Several years ago, I was on a pilgrimage to France.  France is known as the church’s eldest daughter.  It is one of the greatest countries to pilgrimage.  There was this one pilgrim who, in the beginning of the pilgrimage, was particularly difficult.  You can imagine how some pilgrimages can be when you put 45 people together and cram them in a bus for 2 weeks, things happen. As a matter of fact, on the third day, I got on the microphone of the bus and I said, “Now hear this, everyone share your Zanax.  I’ve had enough of this nonsense.  Quit your griping and whining.“  There was one person on the pilgrimage who was obviously very upset and I asked someone what was wrong with her.  He said, “Well Father, her hair dryer doesn’t work.”  You know that AC/DC thing?  So, I said, “Well, I’ll speak to her.”  I tried to make things better. I went to her, and I said, “Look, no one’s looking at you anyway.”  I have to confess, all my life, I’ve had trouble saying the right thing to women.  But look what happened to me. 

In my office, there is a door and a little window.  If the light is right, I can see out, but whoever is on the other side cannot see in.  You know the church campus is used by the high school students. Many of them go through our church area to get to school and I like that.  At least they’re a bit closer to church for a little while.  A lot of times when the sun is right and their reflection is clear, they stop, when they’re alone of course, and I watch them.  There are just a few people and they can’t see me, and they are looking in the mirror and it’s amazing.  It’s like . . . (He mimes the actions the kids make in the mirror.)  I mean, I’m looking at them.  Inevitably they do this…(He mimes again.)  They are worn out these kids, worrying what others think of them.  Oftentimes I’ll say to a parent, and it’s particularly true about their daughters.  I’ll say, “You know you have a beautiful daughter. She’s just beautiful.” I can’t tell you the number of times mom or dad has said to me, “Father, she thinks she’s ugly.”  It breaks my heart.  This preoccupation with self always leads to something bad.

Another thing, we are too thin-skinned. A humble person is not thin-skinned.  We tend to be too thin-skinned.  There is a wonderful article in the latest Time magazine on Abraham Lincoln.  He had so many character traits that we can emulate that were Christ-like.  This was one of them, "Being open to criticism."  As a matter of fact, when he won the Republican nomination for president in 1860, he was one of five candidates and he was considered the dark horse.  Of course, the election and the primary were very bitter. Terrible things were said.  Lincoln didn’t say much bad about the other four, but they sure did criticize him.  You see, back then politics were really dirty.  Actually, they were.  If you’ve ever read some of the political debates of the nation in its first few decades, it was incredible some of the things they said to each other.  They even had duels about it.  In any case, after Lincoln received the nomination and went on to receive the Presidency, he appointed those four bitter enemies to key cabinet posts. He was asked about that.  They said, “How could you do that?  These men said terrible things about you.”  He said, “These are good men.  They have great talents and the nation needs them.  Who am I to deny their talents from working for our nation?”

In another case, his secretary of war… (aside) Who was the Secretary of War of Lincoln's during the Civil War?  This is a great parish.  They know stuff like this. Edwin Stanton. I knew you knew that.  Lincoln sent his personal secretary over to the war department with an order.  Stanton refused to carry it out.  He said, “Lincoln’s a fool.”  Actually, he had an expletive before that, but we’ll leave it at that.  So, the secretary went back to Lincoln, and he said, “Mr. President, Secretary Stanton will not carry out this order.  He said you’re a fool.”  Lincoln said, “He said I was a fool?”  He said, “Yes sir” and he repeated it.    He said, “Well, Stanton is usually right about these things.  I always trust his judgment.  I’d better go over and talk to him about it.”  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could be like that?  Lincoln wasn’t putting on a big act.  That was the way he was. He said, “Well, if Stanton thinks I’m a fool, maybe I am.  Maybe I need not to be a fool.  Maybe I can improve this.”  We are too thin-skinned. 

One of the greatest ways of accepting criticism is to agree with it.  It really deflates your enemy.  One time someone said, “You know Father, that homily made no sense.  It was awful.  It was just terrible.”  I said, “What are you complaining about?  I agree it was awful, but I had to listen to it four times.”  Sometimes we really stink and those are the longest weekends in the world. Be humble.  Let Jesus take it off your own hands.  That’s what he’s saying in this Gospel.

Secondly, he says, serve others.  Take my yoke and pull with me.  Get in harness with me and help me to do my work.  Service to others is an absolute tonic.  Every year our young people come back from Our Little Brothers and Sisters in Honduras smiling.  Every year they say, “Father, I got more out of it than I gave.” That’s the unanimous testimony of the kids. They go down to Honduras for a week and they work and it’s hot and the living quarters aren’t the best and they are far away from home and they come back refreshed and renewed an they feel blessed. The same is true of our young people who left this morning at 6 o’clock.  Sixteen of them and chaperones left for Denver for a week for the HEART work camp.  For a week they will help the poor folks in Denver, cleaning their yards and painting their homes and that kind of thing. They come home always blessed by the experience.  They get more than they gave.  Loaves and Fishes in our parish once a month feeds the homeless in Santa Fe.  They make sandwiches and soup for them. They always come back blessed. When you serve those who are hurting, it puts your problems in perspective. Suddenly you realize, perhaps your problems aren’t so bad and how greatly you are blessed.  So serve others.

Lastly, he says, “Trust me.  Come to me like a child in his father’s or her mother’s arms. Trust me.”  How would you feel if your child or grandchild said, “Dad, I don’t trust you. I worry and I’m anxious at night because I don’t think you are going to care for me.”  You’d be devastated.  How do you think God feels when we worry about all this nonsense and don’t trust him?

Don't carry your burdens by yourself.  Many burdens you were not meant to carry.  Many things are beyond your control.  You are not the general manager of the universe.  At that, oftentimes, wives poke their husbands.  You are not general manger of the universe.  As important as you are and as loved as you are, if you pass on this evening, the sun would come up tomorrow.  We need to know that and remember that.  Don’t carry yesterday’s guilt or tomorrow’s burdens.  Accept God’s forgiveness for the task and his providence for the future.  That’s what Christ is telling us today, when he says, “Come to you all you who are burdened and weary and I will give you rest.” 

Would you please pray with me now? If you would bow your heads we’ll pray this very ancient prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.