14th Sunday Reflection: Shoulder My Yoke and Learn From Me
Franciscan Reflections From The Hermitage – 14th Sunday In Ordinary Time Year A – Loneliness – Shoulder my yoke and learn from me… (Matthew 11:25-30)
The fondest images of myself… learned and wise sage, independent and free… always in control! Yet there remains the little whisper that something is missing, something has been lost. Lost, the capacity to be alone, lost, we fill our lives with busyness, diversions, and with things. And so it was at the great disease crept into our lives while we slumbered.
Amid the great throngs and under the domes of our mercantile temples… The greatest hunger of today… loneliness. All the knowledge that we seek is only a Google click away, all the assurances of our free will… the thirst for identity, and yet we are unable to be alone. Clinging to those buzzing responsibilities that appear to anchor my identity.
Then comes grace… the dawning awareness that just perhaps these illusions have power over me. I am repelled and so I look away, determined not to be influenced. I am in control. Yet slowly the gifted awareness grows that these powerful illusions must be shattered if I am to give up my cherished idols.
Only the soul’s journey can lead me to that first step of self-knowledge, that graced ‘aha’ moment that recognises my illusions for what they are… shifting sands in the hazy view.
Yet even in solitude, the soul is in danger when depending on its wisdom and gifts… becoming a place where new idols are hewn. High idealism and expectations become stumbling blocks. It is only with humble empty hands that solitude becomes the iconoclast, which will tolerate no other God than the one, living and true God.
There are two sides to seeking solitude; those who are running away from something and those who are running towards something. The first are those who seek solitude as a relief from their frenetic and busy lifestyles in the city with its crowds, noise, the stress of the workplace, and hectic social life. They seek times and places of solitude for rest and renewal. For them, solitude is an end in itself.
Then some desire solitude, detached from competing interests because they are running after something. The earliest desert fathers and mothers, solitary hermits and mystics show us the way to seek solitude to find someone, to see our countenance reflected in the divine exemplar and to enter into a more intimate relationship with God.
Lord, we pray today for those who feel called to undertake some burden, to accept death or illness, to forgive an enemy, to let a loved one go, to involve themselves in a struggle for justice. Help them to trust you who know how they labour and are overburdened, that you are gentle and humble of heart, and they will find the yoke easy and the burden light. Past the yoke of loneliness, solitude is necessary for us to thrive.
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