14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Gospel of Matthew 11: 25-30 tells us that Jesus gave this invitation: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Why did Jesus make such invitation?  Well, we know for a fact that many people even those who believe in God keep complaining and whining when big problems come their way. Some become restless and so they withdraw themselves from God. They think that God must make a decision to answer their prayers or else they would stop believing in Him. In doing so, they do not know that they become more restless and cause restlessness on others. They refuse to understand the meaning of Jesus’ invitation.

When Jesus said “come to me,” these words must be interpreted as an invitation to surrender oneself or to abandon oneself to Him (Jesus). Whatever the content is of our prayer, we have to stop insisting first to Jesus by saying “Lord, it is now all up to You”. When Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,” He was in fact telling us to look at our problems the way He would look at them. We have to seek the will of God just like what Jesus did when He prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane. If it seems that our prayer is not granted, it is time for us to submit ourselves before God. We may not be able to understand why bad things happen to us, let us continue to believe that only God knows the reason why it must happen to us. God will reveal His wisdom to us in His time. In the process, we shall experience pain, anger, disappointment, etc. because we do not get what we want from God. But if we give up everything to God, if we let God decide for us, we act to change our life for the better. Though we can feel the pain of losing the thing or person we are praying for, we decide to move on. We become open to the will of God for us. If then we cannot change the will of God through our prayers, we change ourselves by surrendering everything to His will.