Preached by Sr. Rebecca
Holy Wisdom Church
In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus saying: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”: The image here is that of an animal harnessed to do work; the yoke provides discipline and direction. In Judaism the yoke-image was used in connection with wisdom and the Torah. In the book of Sirach 51:26 the sage invites prospective students to “put your neck under the yoke, and let your souls receive instruction.” The book of Deuteronomy says that wisdom is found deep within our hearts. We do not have to go anywhere to find it…it is deep within our being, within the core of our being. In today’s Gospel the image is tied directly to Jesus- the yoke Jesus is offering is: becoming one with him: Jesus, who is divine wisdom incarnate.
Jesus’ school, wisdom teaching, cannot be communicated by word only or by reflection only; it is intended to be imbibed by sharing his life, his space, his task, his heart. “Learn from me” means that the difference between the school of Jesus and other schools is that here Jesus IS the teaching. There is no separation between the words, the theory and the practice.
Jesus is saying that this yoke, his wisdom which is from the Father, is diametrically different and even opposed to that exemplified by the Pharisees. The burdens that Jesus is referring to when he says: “Come to me you who are weary and are heavily burdened”, are the multiple and punctilious observances of the law as the Pharisees saw fit. They piled their self-made, so called ‘wisdom’ on the backs of ordinary people- and it was an unbearable yoke. It certainly did not slake the people’s thirst for God’s love. Jesus unmasked this iron yoke of the Pharisees’ appearance of faithfulness to God as destructive self-indulgence, willfulness and attachment to their own minds resulting in hardness of heart, and in some cases, down right cruelty to the poor and needy.
Jesus continues: “And I will relieve you.” Jesus’ name means ‘savior’–source of relief from all oppression, whether self-generated or imposed upon us from without.
Just as in Jesus’ time religion was so often presented as a system of obligatory doctrines, traditions, interpretations, belief systems, rituals etc. which were taught as conditions for salvation. We are all aware that this same misunderstanding has passed into Christianity. (Paul Tillich said) “We are all permanently in danger of abusing Jesus by stating that He is the founder of a new religion and the bringer on of another, more refined and more enslaving law. And so we see in all Christian Churches the toiling and laboring of people who are called Christians, serious Christians, under innumerable laws (or doctrines) which they cannot (embrace or) fulfill, and from which they flee, or to which they replace by other laws.” This is the yoke of which Jesus wants to liberate us. Jesus’ yoke” is not a new set of morals, rituals, or doctrine, but rather a new Reality, a New Being, and a new power transforming our lives. This yoke is offered…we don’t get it because we try harder to do x, y, z to gain it. No, it is freely given. This wisdom welling up from within is beyond our expectation: suddenly we are grasped by a peace, a love which is beyond our conceptual mind. We know by experience, now, in this moment: love and truth has grasped us. Scales fall off our inner eyes. Nothing externally changes. The change is within and from within changes do happen. It gives us a blessed experience of inexpressible love and we begin to live in a spiritual world to which we really belong. This is what Jesus, in St. John’s Gospel, is calling us to: “Abide in me”. And this ‘abiding’ enables us to live, to be yoked to the great commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Where or how do we find this new reality? We cannot find it, but it can find us if we but be still. “Come to me you who are burdened”: perhaps our readiness to receive this is facilitated when we face, for example, the pain of our burdens and when we take silent time to look inward and experience our actual anxiety, our worries, our inner poverty, our helplessness to solve certain problems-ours or those of others we cherish. We may see perhaps the ways in which we unwittingly are driven by forces that are not from God. We mistakenly put ourselves under the yoke of our past conditionings. However, when we come to our spiritual senses, we know that we cannot save others let alone ourselves. And when we become vulnerable, ‘poor in spirit’ we open ourselves to this outpouring of love that is beyond imagining. This yoke Jesus is talking about is not free, though, from the unavoidable toils of everyday life, the disappointments, illness, and feelings of frustration just to name a few. These are now experienced in a new way: not with resignation as before nor by feverish or violent struggle – but within a Presence that truly gives rest to the soul even in the midst of these unavoidable afflictions. And we learn the meaning and experience what Jesus says: “Without me you can do nothing.”
We celebrate today the Feast of St. Francis: his life and teaching is a witness to us of this New Being in Christ Jesus, this profound intimacy with him that no one, nor thing can separate us.
I‘d like to end with a quotation from the Theologian Paul Tillich:
“Do not ask in this moment what we shall do or how action shall follow from the New Being, from the rest of our souls. Do not ask; for you do not ask how the good fruits follow from the goodness of a tree. They follow; action follows being. …We and our world would be better, truer and more just, if there were more rest for souls in our world. Our actions would be more creative, conquering the tragedy of our times if they grew out of a more profound level of our life. For in our creative depth is the depth in which we are quiet.”
(Quotations from Paul Tillich: The Shaking of the Foundations : prepared for Religion on line by John Bushell.)
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