BY FATHER DAVID PECK

A mother once expressed her dismay at seeing her teen-age daughter appear in a shirt emblazoned on the front with the phrase “It’s all about ME.” Several years later, this same daughter, now married and pregnant, wore a shirt that read “It’s all about the BABY.” The mandate to love, given to us by Jesus, pushes us beyond our self-centeredness and into a willingness to learn how to shoulder our yokes and share them with Christ.

If we tie up our capacity to love in the material things of this world, we’ll feel like we are dragging a boulder behind us and we’ll wonder why our bodies and spirits sag. Coming to Christ, learning from him, and embracing his yoke will make all the difference.

Not only does Jesus promise us rest from labor, but he also promises rest from spiritual and emotional burdens. When we realize this, we can put all such burdens on his shoulders and he will carry them with us.