By FR. BEL R. SAN LUIS, SVD
July 2, 2011, 4:12am
MANILA, Philippines —
A man approaches a priest and asks: “Please
bless me, Father, because my son is a drug addict, my daughter an unwed
mother, my wife a gambler.
Priest asks: Isn’t there anything positive in your life?
Man: Me, Father... HIV positive!
Of course, HIV positive is still negative. But that joke
illustrates that in this “valley of tears” we live in, there are lots of
problems.
* * *
We know of the uncontrollable and perennial oil price hikes, hold-ups
and car jackings, floods, and other natural calamities displacing
thousands of victims.
These are compounded by personal and family problems like
families who cannot afford to pay their monthly house rental, or
expensive medications for dialysis, or advanced cancer, and so on. These
are trying times, indeed.
* * *
Hence, the words of Jesus in the gospel of this 14th Sunday are,
therefore, very timely and consoling: “Come to Me all who are weary and
find life burdensome, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11,28).
But we should bear in mind that experiencing weariness and
finding life burdensome are part and parcel of human life.
There is the
ordinary fatigue we feel from hard work – the kind nurses and doctors,
cooks, secretaries, teachers, laborers feel after a hard day or week.
Thus the saying, accompanied with a sigh of relief: “Thank God, it’s
Friday.”
* * *
Then there is the extreme kind of weariness bordering on severe
depression and even suicide. Not so long ago, a lady jumped to her death
from a high-rise building in Makati. She did it because of acute
depression about her mother’s lingering illness, aggravated by mounting
hospital bills.
Then there is the burden of being sick, handicapped, widowed, or
separated. There are also burdens in looking after others, taking care
of a retarded child, a paralyzed spouse, or senile parents, to mention
some.
* * *
Jesus comes to us as a friend who says, “Come to Me all who’re weary
and find life burdensome and I’ll give you rest.”
He teaches us to
cultivate relinquishment, the ability to “let go” of our anxieties and
to put ourselves in God’s hands.
* * *
Too often we allow our worries and anxieties to overcome us instead
of we overcoming them. We are so used to depending on ourselves that we
leave no room for God’s working in our life. As somebody aptly put it,
“Worry is a mild form of atheism.”
Once there was a man who was suffering from insomnia because of
too much anxiety. He decided to try the old remedy for insomnia:
Counting sheep.
* * *
He went to bed and closed his eyes, but when the first sheep came
along, it stumbled and fell. Would someone come along to help the sheep?
How many more sheep would come along and stumble over the fallen sheep?
How much more would the shepherd lose as a result of the accident? The
man was so personally involved with the situation that the more he could
not sleep!
* * *
As much as we ought to depend on God for our daily needs, so must we
work hard. Perhaps the attitude of that lady should be ours too who,
when talking about the secret of her success, said: “I work hard. I do
my part; then I let
God do the rest.”
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