Labor of Love!

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Is 40:25-31; Mt 11:28-30

William Barclay has an interesting anecdote for the verse, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’

‘There is a legend that Jesus made the best ox-yokes in all Galilee, and that from all over the country men came to him to buy the best yokes that skill could make. In those days, as now, shops had their signs above the door, and it has been suggested that the sign above the door of the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth may well have been: ‘My yokes fit well.’ It may well be that Jesus is here using a picture from the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, where he had worked throughout the silent years.’

‘Yoke’ is a rabbinic metaphor for the difficult but joyous task of obedience to the Torah, God’s Law. By making use of the rabbinic metaphor, Jesus wants us to see the contrast. In essence, Jesus takes off the ‘burden of law’ and mounts on us the ‘burden of love.’ 

For an expectant mother, a child in the womb is a labor of love. Mothers help us understand that the burden that is carried in love is always light. 

If we consider ‘love of God’ as a privilege, ‘love of neighbors’ is a pleasant burden that we are to joyfully accept.

After all, Jesus was love, and as the title of a song goes, ‘Love Carried the Cross.’

The Lord comes in love to mount on us the responsibility of love. 

Let us prepare ourselves to welcome Him!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar