14th Sunday- a

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time- A 

In today's gospel, Christ our Lord the Only Son of God who came to give us life, life that will never end says, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest" 

It's Christ who is the way, the truth and the life and It's Christ who is the living bread and life-giving water and it's Christ who leads us to green pastures and feeds us with the finest of all. 

One of Anthony De Mello's stories goes like this, once an old rabbi prayed to God saying, "God, all my life, I dedicated and served only you. Now look at me, I am so poor and please do something. Please let me win a lottery and thus I will be happy. The rabbi waited for a while and nothing happened and again he prayed to God to help him to win a lottery. Months went by nothing happened. And then he finally prayed to God saying, "God, I am in desperate need, please do something". That night God appeared to him and said, "I will let you win a lottery and why don't you buy a lottery". 

This is just a story and please don't buy a lottery unless you are a rabbi. 

As we go to Him with our heavy burdens, He will definitely give us reduced our burdens and give us rest.  

In the Old Testament, we meet with so many God-fearing people and how their burdens were completely removed by God almighty. For example, Abraham and Sarah who were suffering without an offspring but though for long time, they were not blessed with a child, they never lost their faith in God. They cried out to Him day and night and at the age of 99, Abraham was blessed with Isaac. Because of his faithfulness and trust in God, his burden was completely removed.  

As we move little further, we meet with Job who cried to God, "Naked I was born and naked I will die... " but never lost hope in God. He went back to him again and again and at the end, God highly blessed Him. 

Though we are all filled with so many material things, they cannot give us permanent happiness and joy. God alone, yes, He alone gives us joy and happiness. Our heart will be restless until it rest in Him. 

In today's gospel, Christ our Lord calls us saying, come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. It is because in the time of Christ, the so called religious leaders,  

the Pharisees and Scribes were putting too many religious burdens on everyday people. They were too many laws and regulations; too many conditions and controls and every day and ordinary people were suffering of Sabbath laws and customs. 

There came Christ who saw people like sheep without a Good Shepherd and had compassion for them and said, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest". 

Thus people who were considered sinners because they were sick and people who were physically and mentally sick because they were considered sinners came to Christ and Christ the compassionate one carried their burdens and gave them rest. Christ the gently one made their burden light and showed the way. 

When we are tested with trials, the first question we ask God is "Why Me?" And we fail to count the innumerable blessings we receive from God each and every day. Arthur Ashe, the famous Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS due to his blood transfusion, many of his fans wrote letter to him asking, why did God choose you for such a bad cruel disease? And Arthur replied them saying,  'World over 50, 000, 000 children start playing tennis and 5, 000, 000 learn to play tennis. 500, 000 play professional tennis and 50, 000 come to the circuit and 5,000 reach the grand slam, and 50 reach the Wimbledon and  4 to semifinals and 2 to finals. When I was holding the cup, I didn't ask God, why me. And today in pain, I should not ask God, "why Me". 

So it's God who chose us and let us thank and praise him for the good things that are happing to us and then let us go to him with our pain and suffering. There he will unload our burdens and uplift our souls.  

Conclusion: So we who believe in Christ, come to Church and practice our faith, let us go to Him and unload our burdens and challenges and He will give us rest. Amen.