July 7 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Matt 11/25-30

Background

In today's Gospel St. Matthew continues his "logical" organization of the words and deeds of Jesus by topics or by similarity of words. The related topics in this passage are the expression of Jesus's concern for little children and His love for us as members of His family. The latter passage in which He says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light does not seem to fit the reality of our lives. The yoke is often hard and the burden is heavy. Jesus obviously means that if we can identify with the love of God which he experiences life will look very different. Alas, it is so hard to do that.

Story

Once upon a time there was a boss and an administrative assistant. The a.a. was not the most ambitious or reliable person in the world, but he tried hard at least some of the time. The boss was generous and good-hearted because it was in her nature to do so. When she corrected his mistakes she did so very gently. When holidays fell in the middle of the week (like July 4 this year), she gave the rest of the days off. She gave him the week after Christmas off because, as she said, nothing ever gets done that week anyhow. On Summer Fridays she let him go home at noon. Whenever he needed time off to go to the doctor or for some family event, she gave it to him without question. She granted him a substantial raise every year and wrote generous reports on him to the personnel office. Finally, he saw what he thought would be a better job and quit without notice. He told the new a.a. "You won't like working for her, she's too demanding."