Homily for Thursday Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 15th July, 2021. The Memorial of St. Bonaventure

 Homily for Thursday Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 15th July, 2021. The Memorial of St. Bonaventure

Readings: Exo. 3:13-20; Ps.105; Matt:11:28-30

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

TAKING THE HEAVY BURDEN OF OUR DAILY TASKS AND MISSIONS TO  JESUS

Thinking about the ugly condition of our societies today, where the ugly and sinful attitudes of greed, corruption, pride and selfishness of humanity have places heavy burden and stress on us all and often times these burdens are so heavy that we don’t know how to carry them. The worst of these burdens are the sorrows we bear in our hearts: sorrows caused by our sins, unhealthy relationships we engaged in, unforgiven attitude and family problems as a result of the bad influence of the society.

Thus, today in our Gospel passage Jesus says to us: Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’ No doubt that everyone of us has a task and a mission to accomplish and this can be very demanding, just like Moses in our first reading today, for he encountered God who reveals his name to him as I Am Who I Am and commissioned him and gave him a task and the mission of bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt where they were treated badly. A task and mission which is really heavy and demanding. But promised to be with him.

In a similar way, Jesus recognizes the sorrows in our lives, how we labour and are overburdened as a result of our tasks and mission. Hence he invites us to come to him with all our burdens. Yes, it is in the nature of human person to think and worry about things of this world. Every human person thinks and worries about something. Only few people can sometimes find it easy to resolve their problems, but for most people their problems are too great that they move from bad to worst. 

Therefore, as we celebrate the Memorial of St Bonaventure, a great theologian who task and mission was to defend and reform both the Church and the community of the faithful, a burden he faithful carried out through total submission to the grace of God. Hence, this invitation of Jesus opens a refreshing space in our soul, by inspiring hope and drawing us into God’s loving and gentle presence where our souls find peace and solace. 

Dear friends, what task and mission has God given to us in this life? How are we carrying out this task and mission? What are the challenges we are facing? Is the task and mission so heavy for us to bear? Are we carrying additional load apart from the one God has given to us? I don't know the heavy burden in your heart right now, I don’t know your cherished plans which have failed and it seems as if disappointments have prevailed, thereby wandering in the darkness of confusion and heavy heart all alone? 

Today Jesus is inviting us to come to him with all our burdens, all our troubles, all our challenges and  disappointments and he will give us rest. He says we should embrace his yoke, we should learn from him, for he is gentle and humble of heart and by so doing find rest for our souls. Then we will tell the story of how we overcome our most troublesome and darkest of moments, for we will understand it better by and by.

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as we come to you with our heavy burden and sorrows in our hearts, grant that through the intercession of St. Bonaventure, we may embrace the yoke of Christ and so find peace and solace in our soul. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Wishing you the God's favour.