HOMILY FOR THURSDAY {18/07/2024}, 15TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME B
[ISAI 26:7-9.12.16-19; MATT 11:28-30]
Righteousness is defined as the act of doing what is right. Doing what is right is what Prophet Isaiah gives to us in the first reading. One of those act is approaching God whether in time of season or out of season. In other words, we must learn to approach God at every moment and time of our lives because the Lord waits for us every time we seek him.
One thing that all of us must know is that there will be troubles and crosses as Christians. This is why Jesus gave a way. A way that will make us go through life’s challenges. A right thing to do as followers of Jesus is to carry Jesus’ burden in other to free ourselves from unnecessary burden. “My burden is light.” Jesus does not mean that his burden is easy to carry, but that it is laid on us in love. This burden is meant to be carried in love, and love makes even the heaviest burden light. By following Jesus, one will find peace, rest, and real refreshment. We are burdened with many things: business, concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age, and a thousand other things. Jesus is asking us to give him our burdens and take on his yoke. By telling us, “Take my yoke . . . and you will find rest,” Christ is asking us to do things the Christian way. When we are centered in God, when we follow God’s commandments, we have no heavy burdens.
Dear friends in Christ, apart from the fact that we are so choked up with unnecessary burden of life, one major thing that we must know is that Jesus is interested in lifting from our backs the burdens that drain us and suck the life out of us, so that he can place around our necks his own yoke and his burden which bring to us, and to others through us, new life, new energy, and new joy. 2) We need to unload our burdens before the Lord. One of the functions of worship for many of us is that it gives us a time for rest and refreshment, when we let the overheated radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord. This is especially true when we unload the burdens of our sins and worries and evil addictions on the altar and offer them to God during the Holy Mass
PAX VOBIS
Catholic Diocese of Ilorin, Kwara State,
No comments:
Post a Comment