HOMILY WEEK 15 04 – Year II
An Invitation Like None Other:
Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
(Is 26:7-19; Ps 102; Mt 11:28-30)
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“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Some years ago, I received a similar invitation from my cousin Ron who lives in Florida. He was also the largest donor to our annual Star Trekkers fundraising walk for the Star of the North Retreat Centre that year. He sent me a message saying, “Come and visit.” That message came with promises: he would pick me up at the airport, take me for an airboat ride, we would view some alligators, go to the ocean, and swim in his pool. I accepted and experienced a wonderful holiday including a bonus – a great visit with his daughter Giselle who was there at the time, and a tasty lobster feast with my other cousin living nearby and some of their friends.
Great as that invitation and its promises was, they pale in comparison to the invitation from Jesus himself in today’s gospel to come to him who is gentle and humble in heart, whose yoke is easy and burden light, to find rest for our souls.
The gospel reminds me of a short stay in Cree Lake, a Dené mission in Northern Saskatchewan. Fr. Jim Fiori OMI and I were fortunate to be flown into this little bit of heaven by firefighters. It was established by the legendary Fr. Louis Moreau OMI, and consists of a quaint log cabin and chapel situated on a high point overlooking the lake. Upon our arrival, I took two pails down the steep path to the lake to get water, but spilled half of it on the way up. That night, when we shut the door, we discovered a hand-carved neck yoke on the wall. The next morning, I used it to get water and found I could spring up the hill without spilling a drop! What a difference that neck yoke made.
Coming to Jesus in faith is a bit like using that neck yoke. He can make all the difference in our lives as we struggle with our problems, challenges, responsibilities, obstacles and burdens. All we need do is come to him – but how?
A first way is to believe with all our heart in who Jesus is – Son of God, Savior, Creator God, Risen Lord, Messiah, Word made flesh, Son of Mary, Redeemer, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who suffered and died for us.
We come to him whenever we pray to him, asking especially for his help throughout each day. We can praise him, thank him, worship him especially through the Eucharist, and adore him. Praise and adoration are especially mature prayer because they take us out of ourselves and focus us totally on him.
We can come to him especially for forgiveness of all our sins, because he is the mercy, compassion and forgiveness of the Father in the flesh. As far as the East is from the West he will put our sins, and above all, he won’t even remember them! They no longer exist when Jesus forgives them.
More than that, we can come to him for healing of all our painful emotions, negative attitudes, defects of character, and even our addictions. We can pray with confidence, because he wants to give us the Holy Spirit, so whenever we pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we will receive them, even though we may not notice it at the time.
A mistake we might make is to wait, to hesitate, because we think we are not worthy. That is true – we are not worthy – no one is, and that does not matter at all, because God’s power in Jesus works best in our imperfection, our weakness, precisely our lack of worthiness. All Jesus asks is a contrite spirit and a humble heart.
So, what are we waiting for? We can place ourselves in Jesus’ presence right now, sharing everything with him – our burdens, our joys, our victories, our failures, our workload. As St. Paul puts it, there is nothing at all that can separate us from the love of Christ – nothing in the whole world!
Jesus promises to give us “rest.” That rest is perhaps best described as peace and joy. Peace or serenity is a gift of the Holy Spirit, not a passing emotion, and a gift we can claim as followers of Jesus. Joy is also a gift of the Holy Spirit, not a passing emotion, and a gift we can also claim as disciples of Jesus. These are the hallmark of a true believer, one who knows ultimately, in the words of Julien of Norwich, “all will be well, and all will be well, and in the end, all manner of being will be well.”
One cannot put a price on these gifts of the Holy Spirit. All we need to experience these gifts is humble faith in Jesus, and the willingness to come to him in prayer, and to do his will in our lives, which is to love him back and love others as he has loved us.
Ron’s daughter Giselle is an example of faith in Jesus. Her husband Andy grew up without faith, and when life’s burdens weighed heavily on him, he wanted what Giselle and their daughter had – serenity and joy. Andy took the RCIA and was received into the Church. Now he is very involved with the Knights of Columbus in Colorado where they live.
Today is an optional memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Carmelites have celebrated their patronal feast on this day since the 14th century. According to tradition, St. Simon Stock was given the brown scapular by the Blessed Virgin on this day in 1251. The Order of Carmel dates back to a group of Western hermits who in the 12th century settled on Mt. Carmel, overlooking the plain of Galilee, in imitation of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18:19-46 and 2 Kings 2:25). They grouped themselves around a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady. In the 13th century, the Order of Carmel as we know it was formed, retaining the twin devotions of the early hermits: to Elijah and his solitary prayer, and to Our Lady under the title of Mt. Carmel.
The Eucharist, one of Jesus’ greatest gifts to us, includes a divine reversal – the humble, gentle one who invites us to come to him, actually comes to us through Word and Sacrament to share with us the very life he now enjoys with the Father.
So, what are we waiting for? Today, at this moment, let us come to him in faith and prayer to receive the gift of divine rest only he can give us. May God bless us all.
