Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I Will Give You Rest
Other Celebrations for this Day:
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. Isaiah voices a prayer of longing for God, asks for peace and hopes for a rebirth for his people. It represents the prayer of the just among his people. Our selection omits the parts that refer to the fate of the unjust.
Gospel. The weak and the poor are open to the love of Jesus, for they are aware that they are fragile and vulnerable. He will give them rest and make them aware that what Jesus asks of them is a light burden, for it is carried in love. They will find rest in him.
Opening Prayer
God with a heart,
You have made your love visible
In your Son Jesus, human like us,
And through him you have bound yourself to us
with a bond of faithful love.
Accept our thanks
and help us to reflect a bit of your own love,
that, like you and Jesus,
We may not be afraid
of showing affection and concern to people
and of rendering them generous service,
even when it is inconvenient to do so.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
First Reading
The Judgments of the Lord
Let the righteous walk in righteousness. You make smooth the path of the just,
and we only seek the way of your laws, O Lord. Your name and your memory are the desire of our hearts.
My soul yearns for you in the night; for you, my spirit keeps vigil. When your judgments come to earth, the world’s inhabitants learn to be upright.
Lord, please give us peace; for all that we accomplish is your work.
For they sought you in distress, they cried out to you during their punishment.
As a woman in travail moans and writhes in pain, so are we now in your presence.
We conceived, we had labor pains, but we gave birth to the wind. We have not brought salvation to the land; the inhabitants of a new world have not been born.
Your dead will live! Their corpses will rise! Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust! For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 102:13-14ab and 15, 16-18, 19-21
R. (20b) From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
You, O LORD, abide forever,
and your name through all generations.
You will arise and have mercy on Zion,
for it is time to pity her.
For her stones are dear to your servants,
and her dust moves them to pity.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– Lord Jesus, make us aware how brittle and vulnerable we are, that we may simply ask for your help when we are in distress, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, may those who are tired in life and see no solution to their problems, turn trustingly to you, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, help us carry the burdens of others, for these are light as they are our brothers and sisters, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God, source of all love,
Your Son Jesus gave himself totally for you
as he gives himself now to us
in this eucharistic celebration.
May we learn from him
to help others carry their burdens
and to bring out the best in them.
Make our love as faithful and generous as his,
that he may live among us
now and forever.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
Your love beats in a human heart
when your Son lived among people
as one of us.
Help us to become one with him
and give us hearts as wide as his.
May we prefer, as he did,
those who are loved least
and therefore need affection most,
that we may bring them a bit of your warmth
and love in them him who is our Lord
now and forever.
Blessing
Let our Christian living be a hymn of gratitude to God’s initiative of love and to Jesus’ continual care. May the God of love bless you all, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 11: 28-30
The Yoke of Jesus
Jesus promises rest to those who work hard and are burdened. He identifies with them because he carries the cross. In Chapter 16, we would also read, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him take up his cross and follow me” (Mt.16:24). It is important to understand Jesus’ Cross as a symbol of his love for humanity. His acceptance of the Cross was not a punishment but the ultimate expression of his love.
The evangelist Matthew cleverly distinguishes the yoke of Jesus from the yoke of the Law. A yoke is a heavy piece of wood laid on an ox’s shoulders to help the animal to pull the cart’s weight and prevent it from straying away. In the Rabbinic tradition, the Law of Moses was viewed as a yoke that prevented Israel from straying away from Yahweh. However, as centuries passed, the Mosaic Law became an unbearable burden, an instrument for the priests, scribes and Pharisees to keep the ordinary people under their control. Through the words of Jesus, Matthew is addressing his fellow Jews who feel crushed by the heavy burden of the Mosaic Law.
William Barclay suggests that double yokes were quite common when two animals were used to pull a vehicle. “Jesus is offering to share his yoke with us. He and I are in this together, and he offers to share my burden with me!” Jesus does not say that if we go to him, we will have no more troubles, pain, or disappointments….
There will be “yokes” to carry, but Jesus offers to carry them with us. The challenges of life are necessary for us to grow and mature. However, they are easier when we know we are never alone in our difficulties and sorrows.
Today he says to each one of us: “Take courage; do not give in to life’s burdens; do not close yourself off in the face of fears and sins. Come to me!”. Pope Francis says in his reflection on the passage that “Jesus does not magically resolve our problems, but he strengthens us amid our struggles. Jesus does not lift the burdens from our life, but he resolves our anguish from our hearts; he does not take away our cross but carries it with us. And with him, every burden becomes light (cf. v. 30), because he is the comfort we seek.”