Is 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 / Mt 11:28-30
We human beings have an uncanny knack for making simple things complicated. We go from San Francisco to Los Angeles by way of Hong Kong, we respond to simple questions with answers befitting a Philadelphia lawyer, and we stonewall a friend when a simple “I was wrong” would fix everything.
And the result of it all is a heart saddened and rarely at rest. Why do we make things so complicated? Sometimes it’s plain and simple bungling. We don’t even notice the question before we back into the wrong answer. But other times it’s a ham-handed way of hiding from things we don’t want to face. And what a long way around to a solution that is!
Jesus offers us a better, and for us 21st-century technocrats, a more efficient solution: “Learn from me,” He says, “for I am gentle and humble of heart.”
The humble heart always faces the truth: We are dust (in Latin, humus). So there’s no point in wasting time dissembling. Cut through the smoke screen, face whatever is there, as Jesus would, and respond in words and deeds of one syllable. It’s remarkable what power the truth has if we own it. So face it, and simplify your life!
