And you will find rest for your selves
Ex 3,13-20; Ps 104; Mt 11,28-30
18 JULY
Every Word uttered by Jesus must be read, interpreted and understood in the light of the Word of the prophecy that announces and reveals what the Lord is about to do for his people. The refreshment offered by God, which is the refreshment offered in Christ Jesus, for Him, by Him and with Him, is the return of man into his truth of origin, rather into an even greater truth. In Christ, man is made a child of God and a participant in his divine nature. In Christ the refreshment is made true peace with God, with oneself, with one’s brothers and with creation. The true refreshment of the heart and mind is the peace of God, in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the Lord: The people that escaped the sword have found favour in the desert. As Israel comes forward to be given his rest, the Lord appears to him from afar: With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you. Again I will restore you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin Israel; Carrying your festive tambourines, you shall go forth dancing with the merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; those who plant them shall enjoy the fruits. Yes, a day will come when the watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim: “Rise up, let us go to Zion, to the Lord, our God.” For thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, The mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng. They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: When I change their lot in the land of Judah and her cities, they shall again repeat this greeting: “May the Lord bless you, holy mountain, abode of justice!” Judah and all her cities, the farmers and those who lead the flock, shall dwell there together. For I will refresh the weary soul; every soul that languishes I will replenish. Upon this I awoke and opened my eyes; but my sleep was sweet to me. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say, “The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more (Cf. Jer 31,1-34).
Refreshment is the fruit of the meekness and humility of Christ made our meekness and humility. With humility we accept all the will of God for our life responding to it with a perfect, continuous and uninterrupted obedience. With meekness we welcome upon us all the evil of the world, all its crosses, its scorns and its harassments and we make a sacrifice and a holocaust of them for the redemption of our brothers, in need of Christ and his salvation. As Jesus has obeyed God and men, so will the Christian.
“Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Refreshment is not in liberation from the crosses that the world places on the shoulders of those who have become imitators of Christ, meek and humble of heart, but it is in the grace that every cross makes us live, helping us to transform it into a redemptive sacrifice for the world. The refreshment is seeing with the eyes of Christ, in the powerful light of the Holy Spirit, every suffering that affects our life. Without the light of Christ, suffering is rejected by man. Without his grace it becomes impossible to live it. It is despair.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints, fill us with light and grace in Christ, for him and with him.