Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened," Jesus tells us in the Gospel of the Mass , "and I will give you rest. He addresses the crowds that follow him, battered and dejected like sheep without a shepherd2 , and frees them from the burdens that weigh them down. The Pharisees overburdened them with unbearable minutiae and in return did not give them peace in their hearts.The heaviest burdens of men - St. Augustine teaches - are sins."Jesus says to those who carry such heavy and detestable burdens and who sweat under them in vain: "Come to Me... and I will relieve you. How can He relieve those burdened with sins except by forgiving them?
Every Confession is liberating, because sins - even venial sins - overwhelm and oppress.From this sacrament we come out restored, ready again to fight, full of peace. "As if I were saying: all of you who are tormented, afflicted and burdened with the burden of your cares and desires, come out of them and come to Me, and I will give you rest, and you will find for your souls the rest that your passions take from you "
The Lord, in exchange for these burdens of sin, pride, lack of generosity..., invites us to share his own yoke: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.... And St. Augustine comments: "This burden is not a burden for those who carry it, but wings for those who are going to fly. "
The commitments proper to our Christian vocation and that part of the Cross that each of us has to carry are a sweet weight; and this gentle burden allows us to go back to God himself.
Together with Christ, moreover, the normal difficulties and obstacles encountered in the life of every person take on a very different meaning. Instead of being "our cross," they become the Cross of Christ, with whom we run, our faults are purified and our virtues grow. And yet, so often, all around us, the voice of good people is raised, but without living faith, immersed in comfort, who do not understand sacrifice.
"That path is very difficult," he said to you. And, on hearing this, you nodded proudly, remembering that the Cross is the sure sign of the true way…
But your friend has only looked at the rough part of the path, without taking into account the promise of Jesus: "My yoke is easy".
"Remind him of it, for - perhaps when he knows it - he will surrender ", he will better understand that he too has been called to holiness.
We must proclaim to the four winds that the path that closely follows the footsteps of Christ is a path full of joy, optimism and peace, even though we are always close to the Cross. And it is precisely from these tribulations, carried by God, that we will draw the greatest fruits. Remember," St. Francis de Sales advises us, "that the bees in the time when they make honey eat and are sustained by a very bitter food; and so we cannot make acts of greater meekness and patience, nor compose honey of the best virtues, except while we eat the bread of bitterness and live in the midst of afflictions