"I am gentle and lowly in heart"

THE FEAST OF THE SACRED OF HEART OF JESUS

Scripture: Matthew 11:25-30

To see Jesus is to see what God is like. In Jesus we see the perfect love of God – a God who cares intensely for us and who yearns over men and women, loving them to the point of laying down his life for them upon the Cross. Jesus is the revelation of God – a God who loves us unconditionally. St. Augustine of Hippo says that God loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love. Jesus, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, makes it possible for each of us to know and experience the love which God the Father has for each one of us. That is why the Father sent the Son into the world – to set us free from fear and sin and to show us the way of perfect love, peace, and harmony with God and with one another.
The Lord Jesus invites us to come to him and to take his yoke upon our shoulders. What kind of yoke does Jesus have in mind and how can it be good for us? The Jews used the image of a yoke to express submission to God. They spoke of the yoke of the law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of the kingdom, the yoke of God. Jesus says his yoke is "easy" because he is "gentle and lowly in heart." The Greek word for "easy" can also mean "well-fitting." Yokes were tailor-made to fit the oxen well. Oxen were yoked two by two. Jesus invites us to be yoked with him, to unite our lives with his life, our wills with his will, and our heart with his heart. To be yoked with Jesus is to be united with him in a relationship of love, trust, and obedience.
Jesus also says his "burden is light". There's a story of a man who once met a boy carrying a smaller crippled lad on his back. "That's a heavy load you are carrying there," exclaimed the man. "He ain't heavy; he's my brother!" responded the boy. No burden is too heavy when it's given in love and carried in love. When we yoke our lives with Jesus, he also carries our burdens with us and gives us his strength to follow in his way of love.