Weary and carrying burdens

The Gospel of Matthew in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invites the weary and those carrying heavy burdens to come to know Jesus. The condition of weariness is experienced by most of us at some time. Fr Richard Rohr, in his latest book, Falling Upward, expresses the opinion that we have the opportunity to live a spiritual "second half of life" where the ego building of the first half of life is replaced with a journey to appreciation of a deeply intimate spiritual journey to the simplicity and beauty of communion of our indwelling Spirit with the Divine. This "laying down of our burden" to be important, to be esteemed, to be proud, to satisfy our ego is replaced by a desire to live the blessings of the Beatitudes. We begin to seek the God praised in the psalm who is "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and mercy". We can imagine living simply, aware of the poverty of our place in the universe before the Eternal and Infinite, moving meekly with our God and desiring the peace and unity which the Prophet Isaiah sees for Israel in the first reading today. "The Lord shall renew their strength and they shall mount up with wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:24). Amen