There is one thing we must never forget, and that is that the Lord knows every single detail of our lives. He knows every inch of our joys and sorrows.
That is why what is said in today’s Gospel is told without romanticism and with great insight: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Jesus knows how much we need someone to welcome us in our weariness and oppression.
Too often, we find teachers, judges, experts, but no one willing to welcome us simply as we are and for what we are experiencing. Everyone knows how we should live, what we should do, who we should be, but Jesus does not take this approach with us: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30).
He is the One who says, ‘Bring what you are experiencing to me.’ Stop carrying it alone. Don’t burden yourself with the weight of the world as if you could carry it.
Carry the weight of life with me and in my way. Be gentle and humble, that is, don’t turn your weariness and oppression into anger. Instead, welcome it.
Make room for this part of life that is not convenient. Be humble, that is, be practical, down to earth, without thinking you have to solve everything.
And this is only possible if you remember that you are not alone. That He is with you. That He is in your oppression, anguish, and weariness. Only when we carry a cross with Him does it sanctify us. Otherwise, it brings out only the worst in us. It damns us. It kills us.
This is perhaps the secret of Christianity: Jesus does not promise liberation from what oppresses us, but the certainty that we are not alone as we bear the burden.
Only in this way does what seems insurmountable become light. In practice, this is the immense lesson of the good thief, who, dying the same death as Jesus, uses his last breaths to say only “remember me.”
