A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Our lord spoke as follows. Come to me all you who are weary and find life burdens and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest.
For my yoke is easy and my burden, light. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Well, these words are very consoling, but many people find they don't work out. The test of pragmatism proves that it just ain't so.
Well, of course, as in all controversies, there are two sides. As I read this over before mass, here's a thought that struck me. Humanae Vitae, Paul VI. It's probably one of the best known encyclicals, and the reason it's known, it practically has a subtitle about on contraception, artificial contraception. How you can prevent having babies and yet have the fun.
Now I've read that several times. Most people have not even read it who talk about it. That's just a statement of fact. Now if you read it, the first thing you get is this: Our holy father isn't talking about contraception. He's talking about the love of God.
There's not much love of God in pro or con contraception in itself. It's of natural function. It's love of God. And and then the thought struck me, no matter what is cyclical I've read at the beginning, the ones I'm pretty well acquainted with are from Leo the thirteenth. And whether they're talking about labor or a just wage or whether they're talking about some other social questions.
There the the emphasis is upon the love of God. You can't escape it. You read the you read the documents of Vatican two, and that same thing is brought out to you. These men who were working on these very serious problems, what they have in mind is the love of God. And how do you put it into action?
Because love is just a word, and you know what I think about that. My society isn't growing, but new members are welcome, who agree with me, we ought to eliminate the word. But we don't have a better one, we can't use the word charity anymore. But what these men are talking about is a relationship of man and men and women to God, and how that is operational in daily living and in daily problems which change according to different periods of history, of course. Now this is I've had people saying, Look, you talk to me about natural birth control.
Have you lived with them in a house where people are living together, and they're spending the evening together, then you expect them to husbands and wives to go up and share a bed and not have their sexual privilege? They said it's asking too much of human nature. Of course, I don't argue about this anymore. But I what I would like to ask those dear people, did you get down on your knees and say some prayers before you got into bed? This is the point when these these encyclicals, the teaching of the church about morality, it isn't for the sake of morality.
Remember, there have been plenty of codes of morality. John Stuart Mill or Goose Compton, they all had them. Actually, you can't have a society without some kind of code of morality. You can't have it. That isn't the issue, it's God, and my relationship to God, and my obligation and responsibilities to God.
And out of love, not forgetting the very, very wonderful motivation of fear. As my dear and late friend Chesterton said, you cannot say a man is damned, but you can say all men and women are damnable damnable. They can be damned. We are we are walking on a tight rope. We need guidance.
It isn't enough to say I love you, God. What do I do? What do I do? Mary Magdalene threw herself at the feet of Christ and listened, but she did something. And so this this text this morning is a humdinger, believe me.
This is a text. And when people say I think it's a lot of nonsense, you know very well they don't know what the beginnings are of loving God. Because we have plenty of instances of this in in life. I don't pretend to have a great deal of experience, but what I have seen and seen a lot of, relatively speaking, are the tremendous I cannot exaggerate it. The utter selflessness of mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and grandparents, and in many and some instances, just friends.
I, for one, you know, am not a great believer in the in what blood does. Just because I have a blood relation doesn't mean I like him or her. I have seen this. I have yet to hear of a person who is making these absolute, undescribable sacrifices complain of. Not once.
Now as I say, I'm speaking from limited experience. But not once. Even when any objective observer would say, You are silly. This is ridiculous what you're doing. I have never heard of it.
One is Now, I have heard some people, when it's all over, expressing chagrin that there's been no sign of gratitude. Yes, I've that's true. But their big mistake was ex in expecting gratitude, you know. That's one thing you should never expect, believe me. Don't ever expect gratitude.
And if you're a Christian, that's not why you're doing it. But my point is there is a there are a lot of people who who who give themselves entirely with sacrificial heroism, who don't believe in God. Remember, they've been very good atheists. You don't have to believe in God to be kind to your neighbor. You don't have to be God believe in God to be a martyr.
You can get martyrs for any cause. And that's literally the truth. I'm not speaking in figures. I mean that, literally. So that that the idea that this, whatever this thing we call love is, that it can make a burden light and even sweet.
We know that from empirical knowledge and experience. We don't have to take in our lord's word. You know the famous statue out in Boys Town, if there's one kid carrying another kid on his shoulders, and the inscription is, he's not heavy, he's my brother. Well, you don't have to be a Christian to know that, but Christ is talking about following him. He's not saying your yoke is going to be easy or light or his burden easy or light.
He says, if you follow me, if you take it up in my name, if it is my burden I, you are carrying, then you will find it. In other words, if you are attached to me with this thing we call love, which I much prefer to say call a charity, agape, then you will find you won't you'll have your burden. You'll still be making the sacrifices. But you won't be condemning an encyclical because it doesn't conform to human needs. You will be praising it because it conforms to the love of God.
And then you find the yoke of Jesus light and his burden even sweet. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the spirit. Amen.