Gospel-Homily for Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2023)

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My Yoke Is Easy: The Dream Work Partner

My cousin and I were on a roof job together. My uncle, who was on top of the roof, yelled down for us to start bringing up the roof shingles. I reached down and shouldered an 80lb bundle and started up the two-storied ladder. My cousin was about to follow me when a young pretty college girl about our age came by and asked my cousin, “Could you tell me how to get to Campion Center?”  My cousin told her, “Do you see that building? Behind it, there is a road and….”  “Where?” she asked.  My cousin responded, “Oh, I will take you there.” Five bundles of shingles on top of the roof later, my helpful cousin returned. He reached down to take up his first bundle. Before he could get the bundle on his shoulder, my uncle yelled from the roof, “Someone down there get the coffee.” My cousin replied, “Fine, I will get it.” Twelve bundles of shingles up on the roof later, he came back with the coffee. He took his coffee break without bringing a single shingle up to the roof so here is the moral of the story–you will not want to have my cousin as a work partner because you will end up doing all the work.

I say this because Jesus describes himself to us as a work partner, and uses the analogy of a yoke. A yoke is a device used by farmers to assure that two oxen till the field together. That way, one ox does not go under the shady tree having a coffee break while the other poor oxen does all the work. The yoke divides the work evenly. Which means I do half the work while my work partner does the other half. But Jesus does not describe His yoke as half the work, but as easy and light. What did he mean by that? I will explain. 

Abraham was a guy who had no kids and no land. So God promised him descendants and land. After Abraham had a son. God told him to sacrifice him. This is a normal practice in the ancient world–you give your first to the gods. However, God sent a messenger to stop Abraham from harming his child. Immediately after that, his wife, Sara, died. So Abraham had to buy to bury his wife.

Now, let us suppose that you go to Abraham and ask him how is going to have offspring as numerous as the stars and have a nation the size of Asia when he only has one kid and one piece of land that is no larger than eight feet by three feet. Abraham’s answer would be: EASY. God is with me.

Jesus tells Peter that he has to pay the temple tax so that they will not scandalize anyone. So Peter pays the temple tax. You ask him. How did you pay the temple tax? Did you have to get a job carrying roof shingles up a two-story ladder, plow a field, or lug bricks to build the pyramid? Peter replies, “It is EASY. I went fishing and found money inside the mouth of a fish.” Who finds money in a fish’s mouth? Someone who has God as a work partner. Take it from me, a fisherman, that has to be the easiest, most enjoyable way to earn money. People can come to us and ask us, how we put up with the burdens and difficulties of life, how do we forgive seventy times a day, pick up crosses, and love enemies. And now we have an answer. EASY. It is all about who you are with.