A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Our lord spoke as follows. This of course is the continuation of the gospel reading that we've been having morning after morning from Saint Matthew. Our Lord said, come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome, 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 is light. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. Saturday morning, this Saturday morning, the 08:30 mass will be at 08:00. We have a number of funerals this Saturday, and this change is necessary. So this Saturday, the 08:30 mass will be at 08:00.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. This is one of the most consoling and inspiring texts in the New Testament. Because remember, if if you you have the courage to do so, if you read the four gospels and keep a very clear eye on the text where our our lord tells us how difficult it is to follow him, that he's come into the world not to bring peace but the sword, to bring disturbance in families, to set son against father and daughter against mother and all that. When he talks about taking up his cross and following him, that it's not easy, that the way to salvation is narrow.
Don't forget he said it. It's not an easy way. When you put all these texts together, it's pretty awful. I mean, awe inspiring. So we need to concentrate on these words of our Lord which are equally the words of the Son of God.
Now the trouble is that so many people today are not acquainted, actually with some of the figures of speech Our Lord uses, for example, a yoke. There are plenty of people who have never seen a yoke, much less carry one. Plenty of people. And yet unless you've seen one of these huge masses of very heavy wood that they put on the necks of two oxen, then you realize what carrying a yoke is. That's what Our Lord's referring to, a yoke, not something you put in a woman's dress.
I think that's called a yoke too. That's the beauties of the English language. God help those who have to try to learn it. So here is a tech we should put on our refrigerator doors, in the mirror where we look at every day, even though we are not a bunch of narcissists. Because we have to keep ourselves reminded of Our Lord.
His saying that if you take up his cross, you're not only going to survive it, you're going to find it easy. There are various translations of this, but it all comes back to the same thing. That if you take his yoke upon you, that heavy burdensome, galling, awful thing, you will find it easy. He said that, and the Greek text is perfectly clear on this. You may not want to use the word easy, use any words you want gentle or comfortable or any word.
It all comes down to the same thing. Now I have one problem with this, speaking for myself. In times of stress or danger or you're in serious trouble, but you're fully you're fully in control of yourself as you think anyway, I don't have any trouble bringing this to mind. I don't have any trouble taking a great deal of consolation from this. But there's one situation where it's difficult even to think about God sometimes.
And that's when we're sick, when we're ill, when we're we're laid up, when you're seasick. Boy, eternity looks attractive. Because you see, when we are physically ill, we are not ourselves. Don't ever think that because we don't have to be Cartesians. I certainly am not.
But the thing is, there is a very intimate connection between your physical well-being and your mental health. And in some instances it's beyond our control. And it's in those very moments when we most need this text, when we most need in our loneliness, in almost our despair that we can't even think of God. He seems so mean Jesus Christ is so remote. I'm I'm talking from experience.
Now just remember this, when you are in that situation, remember you're in good company. Good company. That's the company Jesus kept on the cross. Never forget forget it. When our lord remember, he was a human being.
His the persona is god almighty, but he had nothing less than a complete human nature. And when he was scourged, the loss of blood, the journey to Calvary, carrying the cross, he hadn't eaten for hours and hours and hours. He was in terrible physical shape. Terrible physical shape. And in the garden we're told he sweated blood.
He begged his heavenly father to be free of what he had to face. But you see, he was still very much in control of himself in the garden. But when he's dying on the cross, he is not. And what is our lord's reaction? The son of god from his cross.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Those words are tremendous. This is from the son of God. He'd lost a lot of blood. He was physically at a very low end.
Notice how quickly he died on the cross. Ordinary people lived for days on the cross. And our Lord felt despair, but he prayed. He prayed. Because when he said, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Notice that word and the Greek is perfectly clear here. That's not that word is not too strong at all. Abandon me. That is a prayer. It isn't that God has abandoned me.
It's not that God abandons me when I most need him, because when I most need him he probably is right beside me. But I don't have that emotional awareness which in many instances is very artificial. Very. It's not to be trusted at all. Almost any saint that you can appeal to knows what this means, the dark night of the soul.
It wasn't for Saint John of the Cross to pick that up. That's a common experience. It's an experience of anybody who's lived any of life. That when you most need to turn to God, when you most need to feel I'm using the word feel there with great respect. His presence, it just is not there.
You are alone, very much alone. And indeed, the night is dark and you are far away from home, and your prayers is going to be no better and no less than the prayer of Jesus Christ on his cross. My god, my god, why have you abandoned me? In the name of the father, of the son, holy spirit. Amen.