Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Jun Castro SVD – Divine Word College of Calapan
Thursday 15th Week in Ordinary Time
I was once invited to attend a wedding anniversary dinner of a Filipino couple living in New Zealand. I counted around fourteen couples present, and I imagined the bill the hosts would be paying. Alas, I was surprised that all the invited couples lined up to the cashier after the meal, and each one paid for what they consumed. However, being unfamiliar with such a practice, the couple who invited me happily paid for mine.
The first word of Jesus’ invitation is the gentle yet sometimes frightening word – Come. It’s an honor to be invited, and one can even feel important. Yet, invitations require a certain commitment from both ends.
Jesus invites us to come to him, and a demand goes with it—there are burdens and yokes to take. Yet, in case one is unfit for the invitation, he pays for it forward. That is perhaps what he means when he says that his yoke is easy and his burden light. He pays with his own life to foot the bill. With such an act, he gives us the rest that only the Lord can provide.
Take the yoke and learn from the Lord. If we can be witnesses of such response to other people, we can be content in being “rest” assured.
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