14th Sunday, Year A, 9 July 2023 Come closer
Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened (Mt 11,28) and I will give you rest.
We are all burdened, maybe overburdened; we all have our share of troubles.
We need help from various sources to get through life.
The strongest source of help is from Heaven itself.
If we do not pray we are not receiving the benefits of what would have happened.
Help is available. Jesus is asking us to ask Him, to come to Him, and to see it is not so hard as we thought.
Why do we not approach Him more naturally?
Some things require time and application and cannot be sorted out immediately.
It can therefore be a discouragement to prayer if there is no immediate answer; a lack of hope; a sense that prayer does not and will not work.
Jesus said, knock and it shall be opened (Mt 7,7). Some doors will not open the first time, but they will open eventually if enough people pray for long enough.
Jesus wants a state of closeness to us, whereby we put all our requests on a continuous basis.
We do not just ask once and then walk off. We stay with the problem, and with the solution - which is Jesus Himself. He wants us to trust Him after so many centuries of providence and miracles. So much proof, so little belief!
He will never turn the contrite sinner away (Ps 51,18), nor give his son a snake for a fish (Mt 7,7-11).
We may not feel close to God, but He wants us to overcome any shyness or reserve and trust Him as a loving father, or friend; to seek him out, like the woman trying to touch the hem of his garment. (Mt 9,20-22)
For His part He is willing to grant our requests, but He also wants something from us – that we would be His disciples. We are not just ‘customers’ seeking free health or food, but ready to put our whole lives into submission to His holy will.
Then there can be another kind of discouragement, when often people blame God for what goes wrong, and are thus less likely to approach Him. God permits troubles but always with a view to getting a better outcome than we started with.
People who do not pray, or pray only very briefly, are missing out on so much.
This life is hard but it could be a lot easier if we connect with the One who regulates the whole process.
To pretend that God is not there when He knows every thought or word we ever expressed, is to deprive oneself of the most powerful source of help possible!
If we don’t pray or receive sacraments it is a hard slog. We really need the full awareness of the divine element.
God can rescue anyone from anything, and is still as powerful as at any biblical time or past era.
People seek consolation in the wrong places, which can lead to self-destructive results. Many things will make it worse not better, for example, drugs, drink, sexual promiscuity.
If we have a problem God will either remove it, or more likely help us go through it.
The hope is that we will mature in faith and understanding as we go through one thing after another.
We develop a continuous interaction with God, where He heals, helps, strengthens, and resolves.
He knows what is best for each individual person, and also for the whole Church.
But we must come, as He says. Come to Me all you who labour and are burdened.
If we can steer our way through the discouragement we will see daylight!
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