[stephenkhoo]

Scripture Reflections
18 July 2013, Thursday, 15th Week, Ordinary Time
THE GOD WHO COMES TO US IN OUR STRUGGLES
SCRIPTURE READINGS: EX 3:13-20: MT 11: 28-30

“Come to me, all you who labour and are over-burdened, and I will give you rest.” These comforting and consoling words of Jesus surely move our hearts when we read them. This life is indeed burdensome in so many ways. But it is important that Jesus connects the burden with the labour. Our burdens, if they come from our sins, could perhaps be accepted graciously and seen as a pedagogy in personal growth.

We are speaking about the burdens that come from our work, office, position and status in life. Parents feel burdened by the demands of their children and their anxieties for their welfare and future. Spouses feel burdened by an estranged relationship, misunderstanding, lack of communication and disagreement over managing children, work, lifestyles, housekeeping and in-laws. Young people feel tired from the expectations of their parents and friends to perform well. Professionals and workers suffer from the burden to achieve greater productivity and excel in whatever they do so that they can get promoted. Even ministry members and those active in ministry feel burdened by the responsibilities placed on them and the demands of the apostolate.

That was exactly how Moses felt in the first reading. He was already living quite a settled, peaceful and fulfilling life at Midian. He must have consoled himself, thinking that since he had done his best to save his fellow Hebrews but was rejected by his own kind, he was now justified to remain at Midian for the rest of his life without any more troubles. However, he was now jolted by God to go to Egypt to rescue his people. Clearly, Moses was both reluctant and diffident that he could do anything to force such a mighty power to release his countrymen. Jesus Himself too, must have felt burdened by the rejection of His own people. Just before this episode, Jesus was bemoaning the hardheartedness of the people in the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida where He preached and worked miracles, but without much result.

If we feel like giving up or withdrawing because of the exacting demands and responsibilities before us, then we can take comfort that God is asking us to come to Him only because He has already come to us! Indeed, the words of Jesus would not be anything new, even when He urges us, “Come to me!” But it is not simply a matter of going to Him because He might be able to help us. Rather, He invites us to go to Him only because He is the Coming of God. How wonderful it is to believe in a God who is not contented to hear our prayers simply because we cry out to Him, but He comes to us as well.

This precisely was what God told Moses when He said, “I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. This’ he added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.’” What is the significance of such a strange name that God has chosen for Himself? It is not even a noun but a verb!

The truth is that the God whom we worship is not a static God we can domesticate in a place or even in a church! He is not a God created by human minds and human hands. This God is beyond the imagination and control of any man. He is a dynamic God who does not live high up above the sky or in some remote place, but He lives and moves among His people. And that was what He said to Moses, “I have visited you and seen all that the Egyptians are doing to you. And so I have resolved to bring you up out of Egypt where you are oppressed, into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land where milk and honey flow.”

If Jesus could invite us to come to Him, it was because He sees Himself as the Visitation of God in person. God is not contented to be in our history and in our world. He wants to be part of this history, of humanity and of our world. So He chose to incarnate Himself forever in humanity by assuming flesh in Jesus. This accounts for the ministry of Jesus. He comes purposely to reveal to us the love, compassion and mercy of His Father, through His miracles, preaching, deeds and most of all, His love. Jesus is the fulfillment of the “I am” of the Old Testament. In Jesus, God is now present always in our history. Jesus is the Emmanuel of God. In St John’s gospel, Jesus even calls Himself “I am … the light of the world, the Resurrection and the Life…”

But how can our coming to Jesus ease our burdens? Firstly, by coming to Jesus, we come to realize that we are sent! Very often, we are burdened by responsibilities because we think we are responsible for everything, as if we are the originator of our mission. Yes, God told Moses and equally to us, “This is what you must say to the sons of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” If we are sent by God, then God would be the One who will work the wonders through us. We are only to cooperate with the best of our abilities but not to take over the work of God. Let the work of God remain His work, for He said, “For myself, knowing that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless he is forced by a mighty hand, I shall show my power and strike Egypt with all the wonders I am going to work there. After this he will let you go.”

This is what it means to carry the yoke with Jesus when He bids us, “Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” We do not carry the yoke alone but we must carry with Jesus. He will be the one who will carry the burden for us and with us. So to find rest, let us entrust all our labours to Jesus. Let Him decide whether it would be successful or otherwise. Regardless of the outcome, in God’s eyes, so long as we have worked with Him, it will always be successful, perhaps not in human eyes, but in God’s estimation.

Secondly, if the yoke is light, it is because we know that the Father loves us and is watching over us. Again, we recall that earlier on Jesus praised the Lord saying, “I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the cleaver and revealing them to mere children.” Jesus as the Son of the Father knows Him and His heart of love and compassion. Already in the first reading, we hear the pains of the Father when He said that He had seen the miseries and the cries of His people. So we can be confident that the Father will look after us, His children, as He looked after Jesus, who is His child, the Son of God. So let us place our trust in Him.

Thirdly, we must learn humility. This is what the psalmist is also asking of us when he says, “Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known among the nations his deeds. Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought, his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.” Indeed, whoever turns to the Lord, He will show that He is in charge, for He is the Lord of Hosts, the Mighty Warrior of Israel! Not Moses who will deliver the Hebrews from slavery but the Mighty Hand of God would do it! So let us never ever think that success in our work or ministry is due to our hard work and ingenuity. Everything and all glory belongs to Him alone! That is why Jesus said, “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” Yes, learn humility from Him and we will find rest from all anxieties and rest for our souls.

Finally, the yoke would be light if we carry them with love! Work and office become a burden only because they are achievements to be accomplished. We would have fallen into the ways of the world when we begin to measure our success at home with our loved ones or in church ministry by numbers and digits. Instead of seeing everyone as a child of God to be loved and as individuals who are unique, we tend to brand and categorize them. The moment we lose personal touch with the people whom we claim to serve, the moment when we no longer feel their pains and hurts, their fears and anxieties, their struggles and their aspiration, then regardless of how much money we bring back home, how much material comforts we are bringing to them, how many activities we have in church, we would have failed and failed miserably. God sees and acts for us because He hears our cries and sees our miseries and feels our pain and woundedness. He did not act to show and display how powerful and mighty He is! When there is love, no one speaks of duty and if there is burden, it is always light!