Yokes and Burdens

  

 Sermon by Father Jonathan E Moore - LINK HERE

14th Sunday “Per Annum” 2026                Yokes and Burdens

 Last week, Jesus told us of the necessity of the cross for His followers. Today He tells us: “My yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

I would like to begin our little meditation today by inviting you to journey back in your memory. Were you ever in the Scouts or Guides, or perhaps in the Armed Forces, or a member of a Climbing or Hiking Club? If you share any of those experiences, you will I'm sure also remember this. When preparing to walk a long distance, with waterproofs, food, cooking pots, water bottle, sleeping bag, first aid tin, tent - and in my own case a Mass Kit (!), the most important thing we learned was to pack the old rucksack in the proper way. First of all, you didn't take anything you didn't absolutely need - I've seen many unnecessary items left behind in Youth Hostels after the first day’s walking: books, cans of fizzy drink, the odd cine camera or chess set. One stiff day’s hiking, especially in the hills, changes one’s perception of what is really needed. Having sorted out anything not needed, the next important task was to repack the rucksack properly. Heavy and hard objects go at the bottom, with something soft between them and your spine, the lighter and softer items go higher up, ensuring that the shoulders and neck aren't irritated and blistered. One of the most rewarding things an experienced walker can do is to sort out the rucksack of a weary novice; you never forget the look of relief when they put it back on, often saying: “You're a magician - it only weighs half as much now!”. At times it may be necessary to carry quite a load, but with careful removal of unnecessary weight, and the proper distribution of the rest, the load is by no means insupportable.

My second thought is about “Yokes”. By the time I was growing up in rural Lincolnshire, although no longer used, yokes themselves were a common sight, hanging on the walls of barns and cowsheds. A few years later, the antiques dealers moved in and bought them all for next to nothing. The use of oxen to pull ploughs and carts was quite rare in Britain. In other parts of the world, however, it is a usual sight. The old dairy yokes, made for human shoulders, and the draught yokes made for animals, have this in common - they are beautifully made! The dairymen, farmers‘wives and milkmaids who regularly used yokes for carrying buckets would, if they were lucky, have a yoke made specially for them. The village carpenter would carve it out and fit it to the shoulder with the same skilled care as an expensive tailor fitting a suit. The end product would fit like a glove, smoothed out and adapted to the exact shape of the wearer, not digging in or chafing the skin anywhere. The less fortunate users had to be satisfied with a home-made cushion for their shoulders. In both cases the intention was to make the yoke as comfortable as possible. The purpose of a yoke was to make life easier, not harder. In the same way, a pair of oxen, properly yoked, would be able to pull their load for longer, day after day. The soldier or hiker with a heavy pack, the milkmaid carrying eight or ten gallons of milk at a time, the patient beasts pulling a plough, all had a burden they must carry, a load to haul. Without good packing, without careful fitting, their burden would be heavier, their work more exhausting.

So what did Our Blessed Lord mean when he said that His “Yoke was sweet and His burden light”? Last week, reflecting on the cross, we saw that suffering is the common lot of human beings. The greatest misfortune is not to have a cross to carry - everyone does.  No, the most unfortunate are those who “have the experience but miss the meaning”, who can see no deeper spiritual value, no eternal blessing, in what they endure. Jesus tells us that the cross is a necessary condition of discipleship. To shoulder the cross and follow in His footsteps is the sure path to paradise. Jesus, however, offers us more than a future promise, He also promises to help us here and now to bear the load. 

How is this done? First and foremost, Jesus gives very good advice about the way we pack our burden. It is all too easy to find ourselves trying to carry unnecessary weight. The greatest weight many people carry is one of guilt for past sins. Jesus tells us very clearly that we don't need to bear that weight at all. In the Gospel story we find Jesus meeting people with all manner of problems. How does He greet them? Mostly by saying “Your sins are forgiven”. As Catholics, we are particularly blessed in this regard through the gift of the Sacrament of Penance. When a priest absolves us after Confession, he says “May God grant you pardon and peace.” The burden of sin and guilt is one we can shed. Another needless weight is so often the memory of past hurts we have suffered from others. We humans have a tendency to hang on to these past injuries, and to allow them to feed a sense of bitterness and resentment within us. That is a dangerous condition to be in. Bitterness, resentment, the inability to forgive others, are the best possible breeding ground for anger, hatred, revenge and self-pity. A person who carries that load will never be far from evil. In the story of Cain and Abel, God warns the angry and resentful Cain that sin is “crouching like a lion at his door” (cf. Genesis 4:7). This is why Jesus tells us that we must pray to the Father: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Guilt and resentment: once free from their oppressive weight we find our burden many times lighter. St. Cyril of Jerusalem told those preparing for Baptism: “ If you are holding anything against anyone, forget it, let it go. You have come here to receive forgiveness of sins, so you must first forgive whoever has sinned against you.” (First Catechesis, P.G. 33) When you pray, have courage to share with Jesus all of the negative thoughts and feeling you have. Dare to “unpack” your burden with Him and let him take that weight from your life.

Then what of that “Yoke”? The Jewish people used to speak of the “Yoke of God’s Law”. In Psalm 18 we read “The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart. The Law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul”. The Lord’s “Easy Yoke” does not leave us free to please ourselves, but obedience to that Law in fact brings more joy to our hearts than we could ever find by doing whatever we wanted. You see, there is a paradox at work in our human condition: people who want to be free of any responsibility, at liberty to do whatever they wish, always find themselves wearing another yoke, and a heavier one by far than the Lord ever asked of them. God perfectly understands not only our human nature, but our own individual human personalities. There is an ancient Islamic prayer which begins “Lord, I thank you that you know me better than I know my own self.” The demands God makes of each and every one of us are exactly tailored to our own strength, ability and needs. As long as we are alive, we will wear one yoke or another, but none fits better than the one tailor-made by the Nazareth Carpenter!