Thursday of 15th Week in Ordinary Time
CAMILLUS DE LELLIS, Priest Optional Memorial
After a rather turbulent youth and a military career, Camillus of Lellis had to stay in a Roman hospital for a prolonged treatment. There he discovered for himself the incompetence and lack of dedication of the nurses of his time. He became a priest and founded a congregation for helpers of the sick, especially the incurable ones. One of his companions wrote his biography and describes there how he treated the sick as other Christs, even asking forgiveness of them.
Isaiah 26:7-10; 16-19
The path of right-living people is level.
The Leveler evens the road for the right-living.
We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger
in the path sign-posted with your decisions.
Who you are and what you’ve done
are all we’ll ever want.
Through the night my soul longs for you.
Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you.
When your decisions are on public display,
everyone learns how to live right.
If the wicked are shown grace,
they don’t seem to get it.
In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living,
blind to the splendor of God.
You hold your hand up high, God,
but they don’t see it.
Open their eyes to what you do,
to see your zealous love for your people.
Shame them. Light a fire under them.
Get the attention of these enemies of yours.
God, order a peaceful and whole life for us
because everything we’ve done, you’ve done for us.
O God, our God, we’ve had other masters rule us,
but you’re the only Master we’ve ever known.
The dead don’t talk,
ghosts don’t walk,
Because you’ve said, “Enough—that’s all for you,”
and wiped them off the books.
But the living you make larger than life.
The more life you give, the more glory you display,
and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!
O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble,
when your discipline was so heavy
they could barely whisper a prayer.
Like a woman having a baby,
writhing in distress, screaming her pain
as the baby is being born,
That’s how we were because of you, O God.
We were pregnant full-term.
We writhed in labor but bore no baby.
We gave birth to wind.
Nothing came of our labor.
We produced nothing living.
We couldn’t save the world.
But friends, your dead will live,
your corpses will get to their feet.
All you dead and buried,
wake up! Sing!
Your dew is morning dew
catching the first rays of sun,
The earth bursting with life,
giving birth to the dead.
Gospel: Matthew 11:28-30
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Prayer
God, loving Father,
we thank you today for St. Camillus,
who visited your Son in the sick.
He would have loved to take upon himself
their illness and afflictions,
could he but ease their pain
and relieve their weaknesses.
This is the kind of love we pray for
and of which we are not capable.
But let Jesus your Son appear
behind the face of people who suffer
and perhaps we too will be touched
by his self-forgetting love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reflection:
14 July 2022
Matthew 11: 28-30
The Yoke of Jesus
Jesus addresses those “who work hard and are burdened” and promises rest. He identifies him as one among them because he carries the burden of 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). The Cross of Jesus needs to be understood as his love for humanity. He accepted the Cross not as a punishment but as the ultimate expression of love.
The evangelist Matthew cleverly distinguishes between the yoke of Jesus and the yoke of the Law. A yoke is a heavy, painful piece of wood laid on an ox’s shoulders to pull the cart’s weight and keep it on track, preventing it from straying away.
The rabbis presented the Law of Mosses as a yoke which prevented Israel from straying away from Yahweh. However, as centuries passed, the Law became an instrument for the priests, scribes and Pharisees to oppress the ordinary people. Thus the Law became a burden. Through the words of Jesus, Matthew is addressing his fellow Jews who are crushed under the heavy burdens of the yoke of the Mosaic Law.
Under them, it was impossible not to put a foot wrong somewhere. The law demanded scrupulous observation of the tiniest obligation. It is to these people that Jesus offers a lighter yoke. William Barclay suggests that it was pretty common to have double yokes when two animals pulled a vehicle together. Jesus is offering to share his yoke with us. He and I pull together, and he would share my burden with me.
Jesus does not say that if we go to him, we will have no more troubles, no more pain, no more disappointments… There will be “yokes” to carry, but Jesus offers to carry them with us. When doting parents so protect children that their every whim is answered and every negative feeling anticipated, what do we end up with? Spoiled brats! Jesus will not spoil us in that way. The challenges of life are necessary for us to grow and mature. However, they are easier to bear when he carries them with us when we know that we are never alone in our difficulties and sorrows.
To follow Jesus is not to carry great weight but to experience a great sense of liberation. If we have not found that experience yet, then we are not yet carrying the yoke of Jesus.