Living Faith

Feast of the Holy Trinity

Baptism Class - What does “True and Living Faith” mean?

When I teach baptism classes I always begin with a question from the instruction for the rite of Baptism.  “What does it mean to have a true and living faith?”  This is a challenging question for the parents and god-parents to be.  They often respond with “Be kind” or “Believe in God etc.  I ask this question because when parents bring their children to the Church for the sacrament of Baptism, they are asking that the Church baptize their children based on their relationship with God.  If we don’t have a clear understanding of who God is and our relationship to Him, then passing on our faith to our children is a huge challenge.  It is a wake up call.

How do I know my faith is True?  Living?

I think it is a great question for all of us - what does it mean to have a True and Living Faith?  How do I know that I have faith that is true?  How do I know that I have faith that is living?

True Faith / Living Faith

To have a true faith means that what I believe is consistent with what the Church teaches about God.  To have a living faith means that I actually put my beliefs into actions - that my beliefs shape who I am and how I live.  I have an active relationship with God.

St. Paul teaches True and Living Faith

The readings today for the Feast of the Holy Trinity teach us how to have a true and living faith.  It starts with the nature of God as 3 persons.  St. Paul says this the best at the end of the 2nd reading today when he says - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”  

A True and Living Faith is a Relational Faith

Put this in our own words - The Welcome of Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.  Each of these words are relational.  Do they reflect our relationship with God?  If we treat God as an idea and not a person then these words make no sense - however, if we are in relationship with the fullness of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit then we desire the welcome of Christ, we treasure the love of the Father and we live in dialog with the Holy Spirit as we go about our lives.  This is the goal of a True and Living Faith.

God is not an abstract idea to understand but a relationship to enter. To have faith in God is not mere belief, but a dynamic and living relationship that demands a response out of us. Every time we pray the Sign of the Cross, we are stepping into the living relationship of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Rejoice

I love the order of things from St. Paul’s letter that is our second reading - he says “Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

If we want to have a true and living faith then we need to begin from a place of joy - “Rejoice!”  We rejoice in the realization that the Father loved us first - and out of His love for us we are created.  This is the central point of today’s Gospel - John 3:16 which we see at the Football games - “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”.  Is the foundation of our relationship with God one of Joy or Fear or Duty or some other motivation?  St. Paul's guides us to begin in Joy - which is the response to Love.

Sign of the Cross begins with Joy

When we pray the sign of the Cross we ought to begin with joy [PLACE HAND ON FOREHEAD] at the realization that God loves me deeply, fully, completely - [MOVE HAND TO THE HEART] - so much so that He sent His Son out of love to save us, redeem us, welcome us.  His son gives us the Holy Spirit [COMPLETE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS] who lives and binds the Church together today. 

“Mend your Ways”

To have a true and living faith that is rooted in the joy of the Love of All of God, we start with an examination of the ways that our hearts are distorted by sin and selfishness, and in-spite of that we are called to begin with joy.  

In his encounter with God, Moses learns of God’s nature:  “the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich (full) in kindness (love) and fidelity." Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."  God does not impose Himself on Moses but waits for Moses to invite Him into relationship.  As Moses encounters God he realizes that He and the Israelites (and you and I) are a stiff-necked people - and so we ought to “Mend our ways”

In case you are thinking [PUT HAND ON NECK AND ROLL HEAD] - Thank God I am not a stiff-necked person today then think - stubborn, or obstinate or willful…

God has given us the trait of stubbornness - not to be used to remain enslaved by sin, but rather that we are stubborn in avoiding sin.  In addition to being a trinitarian prayer [MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS] the sign of the cross is a reminder to us of God’s love for us - in that the Father sent his only Son to die on the cross and to heal our stiff-necked nature. 

Practical ways to live your Trinitarian Faith

“Encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace”

The fruit of the Holy Spirit - that is the Spirit of Christ is that once we have mended our ways we start to live our lives so as to reflect the witness of Christ. This is the Living part of faith - we allow the love of Christ to govern our relationships.  

“Encourage one another”

Encourage one another - when we are tempted this week, take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit for words of encouragement rather than criticism.  Each day this next week as you go about your day think of one person to encourage - it could be your spouse, your kids or parents or siblings or a co-worker.  

“Agree with one another”

Think about what you believe - is it in accord with the Church or is it different?  Where are the places in our lives that we are taking exceptions to our Catholic Faith?  These are areas for conversion.  For example, What are the areas of strife in my life?  What is behind those?  Is it that I am a “Stiff Necked Person”?  Is it something that I can find a way forward with?  This is especially true with spouses, and children.  The value of living in accord with one another and with the Church is that we invite God into our relationships rather than reject Him or close Him out.

“Live in Peace”  

During the Last Supper Christ says to his Apostles “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”.  When we live a Trinitarian life, our hearts are anchored in the the love of God and that allows us to look at all of the trials and tribulations of life as an opportunity to grow closer to Christ - even in the challenging things like a life-altering illness Christ invites us to abide in him, to not be anxious and to let his peace reign in us.  As we go to prayer this week - what anxiety or struggle do we need to surrender to Christ?

An Invitation to Immersion

The Gospel ends with a challenging Admonition:  “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”  

Self Belief = isolation / death, Entrust Christ = Life

The word for belief in the Greek for this passage is πιστεύω (pisteúo) which means to entrust ones existence to God.  Jesus warns us that when we trust in ourselves, or in things, we will not have life.  Conversely when we entrust our lives completely to Him then we have eternal life.  When we immerse ourselves into this relationship with God, who is the source of life, our life is filled with his presence, his grace.  Christ invites us to entrust ourselves fully to the Trinity.  This is what it means to have a True and Living Faith; that I immerse myself [MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS] in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen

The Witness of St. Polycarp

 St Peter and St John heal a crippled man in the temple

The First Reading comes today from Chapter 4 of the Acts of the Apostles.  What happened just before this was that St. Peter and St. John both had passed a cripled man who had begged them for some money, instead Peter shared his faith in Christ and the man was healed.  Peter and John went on to share with the crowd that was gathering that it was in the name of Jesus Christ that this man had been healed and so he and John were thrown into prison.  In today’s reading we hear of his testimony before the Sanhedrin - the ruling council.

Peter and John installed Ignatius of Antioch and his friend Polycarp

St. Peter and St. John installed St. Ignatius as the Bishop of Antioch.  St. Polycarp was a close friend of St. Ignatius.  St. Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna which is a town in Western Turkey.  Both Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of St. John - who installed Polycarp as Bishop of Smyrna.  St. Irenaeus (a disciple of St. Polycarp) tells us that St. Polycarp was a disciple of St. John.

“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; 

One of the characteristics of a Good Shepherd is that he brings peace to the sheep.  Without a shepherd the sheep are anxious and skittish.  With him they are at peace and unified - because they know his voice and his presence.  

How well do you know the Good Shepherd?  

One of the side-effects of knowing the Good Shepherd is that He takes away worry and anxiety from our lives.  We do not worry and we are not anxious because we are able to trust in the providence of God.

Think back on your life this past week - what are you worrying about?  

• Divorce / Marriage / Relationship?

• Work / Finding Employment?

• Sickness / Chronic Problem?

• A Test or problem at School?

To know Christ - to know the Father means that we understand that everything happens according to God’s will - so when we are able to listen to the Shepherd - especially in the disasters of our lives then we can see that God has a hand in everything.

The capture of St. Polycarp

When St. Polycarp was 86 years old, the Proconsul Irenarch Herod gave an order that any Atheists (that is those who denied that Caesar was God) be rounded up and forced to take an oath that Caesar was God.  Polycarp heard that they were looking for him so he started moving from house to house and hiding to stay alive.  Eventually, some horsemen found him in a farm outside of Smyrna - and when caught Polycarp, he first asked that they be given food and drink to be refreshed and then  asked them to let him pray for an hour before taking him prisoner.

• How often do we turn to prayer when we are caught in a moment of Crisis?  

• How often do we turn to prayer to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd to know the voice of the one who loves us - to ask Him what His will is?

Peter and John - A night in Jail and in Prayer

Peter and John turned to prayer and relied on the prayer, and as the first reading begins today they are on trial.  St. Luke tells us that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak about what God was doing through them - because Jesus had laid down his life and taken it up again.

Like Peter and John - St. Polycarp was called to witness

When the Proconsul Irenarch Herod endeavored to persuade him, saying, “What harm is there in saying, Lord Cæsar, and in sacrificing, with the other ceremonies observed on such occasions, and so make sure of safety?  Swear by the fortune of Cæsar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists and I will set you free!  Reproach Christ.”

Polycarp replied - “Eighty Six years have I served Christ, and He never did me any injury:  How then can I blaspheme my King and My savior?”  Since you think I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.

Ask for the grace to be a witness this week

I want to invite you in your prayer life this week to ask the Lord to make clear to you when you are being called to witness to the love of God that is made so clear at Easter time.  When you pray in the morning lay your plans before the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to make clear to you when and where you are called to give witness to Christ.

The world today asks us to swear by fortunes like Caesar

Just as in the time of St. Polycarp, the world today calls us to depend on things that are not God, and then ridicules us for being men and women of faith.  Our culture has made a straw puppet out of people of faith as unreasonable, ignorant and superstitious. Nothing can be further from the truth - 

• To know Christ is to know the truth, 

• To know Christ is to live an abundant life.  

• To know Christ is to know the blessings that he showers on us, and to be willing to publicly give Him credit for the grace He has given to us.

Martyr is the Greek word for Witness

Irenarch Herod then threatened to throw Polycarp to wild beasts - Polycarp responded “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous.”

When that did not work Irenarch threatened him with fire but Polycarp was unfazed.  St. Polycarp was burned at the stake and pierced with a spear in the stadium in Smyrna for refusing to burn incense to the Roman emperor.  As he died he said “I bless you, Father, for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share in the cup of Christ.”

Polycarp grew up listening to the preaching of St. John the Apostle - who wrote the 2nd reading today.  St. John said… “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.”

Polycarp let the words of St. John permeate his very being - it was why he said to the proconsul - “Since you think I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.”  Polycarp understood that his baptism as a Christian was the foundation of his life and he would not trade it for anything.  He spent his entire life seeking to become more completely a child of God - he wanted to be a saint. 

True faith is rooted in our relationship with Christ

That is what will happen to us if we understand our vocation as a Christian seriously - it is not something that happened to us when we were babies it is meant to be a way of life - that we have a relationship with God, with the Good Shepherd that is so deep and so profound that it permeates our entire lives and we begin to take on the image of Christ in our lives.  As we grow in holiness our responses become more and more infused with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

 

“Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

St. John calls us to become saints

The more we open our hearts to the grace of God, the more we listen to the voice of the Lord, the more we begin to imitate the Good Shepherd in our lives the more we know and understand His will, and the more we are able to cooperate with it.  

Saints subordinate their will to Gods

Ultimately this means that we surrender our will to the will of God - because in that way we imitate the son-ship of Christ - who reminds us in the Gospel - This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. 

Surrender is an active cooperation with the Holy Spirit

Surrender to God’s will is not a fatalistic abandonment to the fate of the world, but an active cooperation with the love of God working in our lives.  It takes work - a life of prayer and a life of conversion.  That surrender to God transforms us into the image of Christ - in the same way that Polycarp was transformed - he imitated Christ in a unique way that only St. Polycarp could.

Christ invites us to imitate Him this week

Christ invites you and I to imitate Him this week - each of us in a unique way that only we can do.

St. Polycarp - Pray for Us.

Through the Desert

 

First Sunday of Lent

Gn 9:8-15, Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 1 Pt 3:18-22, Mk 1:12-15

The Spirit Drove Christ into the Desert

St. Mark tells us that the Spirit drove Christ into the Desert to be tempted by the Devil?  Why would God do that to himself?

The Desert is a place of Death

We have in our parish this beautiful poster of the Desert - it is at either Sunrise or Sunset - it seems to be a place of quiet, solitude, and beauty. Looking at this poster - you might be thinking to yourself - “I get it.  Jesus is about to begin His public ministry, so he is going to catch some rays and relax before getting busy saving the world.”  Nothing could be further from reality.

The Source of Death is our decision to Sin

St. Mark also tells us that Christ was driven into the desert to be tempted by Satan.  That tells us a bit about the reality of the Desert - it is the place of death.  There is no water, no shelter, no protection, everything is exposed, dries out and dies.  

The Israelites went into the Desert to Die to Slavery

When the Israelites went into the Desert it was so that they could die to the life of slavery in Egypt and so begin to live life as the chosen people of God.

The Desert is a dangerous place

The Desert is where we are alone, unprotected from the wild-beasts who are all scrambling to find their next meal - which if we are unprotected could be us.  The desert is populated with poisonous things - Snakes, Scorpions and the like - not a place where we could lie down and rest…

Why then does the Church send us into the Desert of Lent?

As I said - the desert is the place of lifelessness.  It is the place of Death.  For each of us, the desert is the place in our hearts where we choose sin, we choose to kill our relationship with God - that is the desert that we are called to enter into so that we can have a holy Lent.

The Desert of Lent is where we die to the Slavery of Sin

The Church sends us out into the Desert of Lent each year so that we can die to the slavery of Sin in our lives.  She does not send us into the desert unprepared, but sends us into the desert armed with the season of grace (God’s Love), and the weapons against the enemy - Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

On Ash Wednesday this past week the parish was packed with people, wall to wall.  The parking-lot was packed - and everyone was excited to be here.  In my experience of Lent, I know that this is early days, everyone is still enthusiastic about this journey - we have yet to stumble, fall or fail at our lenten disciplines - but that too is coming.

What is Sin?  What is Temptation?

All of us are sinners, we all commit sin.  There is nothing more embarrassing than to be a committed Christian and to recognize in your life that you are addicted to sin.  Even though you make a firm resolution in confession to avoid temptation to sin and the sin itself I still find myself committing sin in my life.  

Sin is when I freely take an action that is of grave matter that is directly opposed to the will of God.  Scripture tells us that the wages of Sin is death.  It also tells us the topics that make up grave matter.  The first 3 relate to God

1.  God Alone

2.  God’s name is Holy

3.  Take time to worship God on the Sabbath.

The last 7 are how we relate to one another.

4.  Honor your Parents

5.  Do not kill

6.  Do not commit adultery

7.  Do not steal

8.  Do not lie

9.  Do not covet your neighbor's wife

10. Do not covet your neighbor's goods.

That recognition leads me to the realization that I cannot escape Sin under my own power - that I am weak and that I need help. 

Sin kills our friendship with God - Sin is the Desert

God gave us the commandments (in the desert) to help us to live a good and holy life.  Yet all of us, find ourselves from time to time where we choose to break one or more of these commandments.  In that moment we choose to make ourselves God, and say to the Lord - you don’t know what is good for me - and instead to break the commandment - which kills off our ability to recognize the love of God.

When we do that we find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual desert - a place devoid of life and without the presence of God.  We truly are exposed to the wild beasts and vulnerable to death.  What can we do?

Psalm 107 - The Desert will become a place of springs

In Psalm 107 the Lord says that he will turn the “desert into streams, thirsty ground into springs of water…”.  The desert that the psalm refers to is the place of death that we find ourselves in this Lent.  It is the desert into which Christ preceded us to do battle with temptation by the Devil.  

Christ goes into our Deserts to help us win over sin

Christ goes into the desert - into the place in my life, your life where we choose to sin, where we exclude God from our life and where we begin to die to rescue us from the wages of Sin and Death.  That is what this Lenten season is about.  The Church equips us with Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving to give us the tools of conversion - so that we can die to the slavery to Sin and rise into the newness of life.

Prayer expresses our need for help

Prayer helps us to verbalize our need for God’s help.  Prayer in which we can begin to understand the depths of God’s love for us - that we can drive out temptation to make ourselves God and instead remember that God loves us completely, deeply, profoundly, totally.

Fasting helps us subdue impulsiveness

Fasting - where we do battle with the impulsive nature of our will.  Satan often tries to get us not through our logical nature - “Hey wouldn’t it be a great idea if you forgo eternity in communion with God for an Icecream cone?  No rather it is through our impulsive nature - I want, I am compelled, I desire…  Fasting helps to strengthen ourselves against our more impulsive desires - because at its heart most habitual sin is just that - we have become so comfortable in our sin that it is a habit and we are not even thinking about it any more…

Almsgiving is an imitation of Christ

Almsgiving - reminds us that everything we have been given is a gift from God, and so therefore we should share the gifts that God has given us with those in need. Almsgiving is a powerful weapon in Lent because not only does it help us to recognize God’s gifts, but it teaches us to imitate God by imitating His generosity - in sharing the gifts that God has given us..

Christ waits to be invited into your desert

Christ wants us to know that the desert is not a place that is foreign to Him, that is devoid of Him - that he is too embarrassed to go to.  No, rather God is compelled by His love for us to enter into the Desert for our conversion.

To bring about a flood of grace

And what of these Springs of Water that God desires to release into the Desert?  The springs of Water are best symbolized by the water of Baptism - in which God’s grace gives life and light to the world - in which we are reborn from Sinners into children of God - vessels of God’s grace welling up in us and through us into the world.  

See that God saves you this Lent

When we allow Christ into our Desert he brings his grace to cure the barrenness of Sin, and to bring about a new life of grace in our midst.  With all of the saints who were great sinners, the desert becomes a place of springs because it is the place where they can clearly see God’s love for them conquering sin and death in their lives.

St. Peter says in the second reading today…

Beloved:  Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.  Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit… 

In which a few persons… were saved through water.  This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.  It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,

Repent (Change your mind) and believe in the Gospel

A clear conscience through which God’s love can permeate our lives and through our lives transform the world.  That is why the Gospel today ends in this way - Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."  Christ has gone before us - it is up to us to follow Him…

Contradictions

The Gospel today is filled with Contradictions

• What is hidden from the wise is revealed to the little ones
• The King Comes to You
• The Flesh is Death, the Spirit is Life
• Take on my yoke - because it is easy

How are we to take this into our hearts and live it out in our lives this week?

What is hidden from the wise is revealed in these little ones.

No one comes to the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him to.

We are the Body of Christ - We are Christ in the world today - it is through His disciples that Christ is revealed.

• How do we share Christ with those around us?  Are we willing to share our encounters with Him with others?
• Do we choose to encounter Christ in our daily lives?  Not just on Sundays, but Monday through Saturday?
• When we receive Christ in the Eucharist do we allow that encounter to transform us?

Yet - realize that as the disciples of Jesus Christ - we are the ones that the Son has commissioned to share the love of the Father with the world.  When we share our encounter with Christ with others in our lives, then we are sharing in the mission of Christ - Revealing the Love of the Father to His little ones.

The King comes to Us - In a normal world I need to go to the King
This is the second contradiction of the scriptures today.  In a "normal" world when we had trouble we would have to go to the King, and bribe palace officials for an audience or wait for days for the King to hear our case and then to receive his judgment.  Yet the Prophet Zechariah uses this imagery of the King coming to seek us - not with a royal procession, guards, and important people, but meek and humble, riding on the colt of an ass - a beast so small and fragile that it needs gentleness and tenderness.

The image of the King coming to help us is the image of a Father coming to the aid of a hurt child.  Perhaps he fell down and skinned his knee?  How would a loving Father respond?  Perhaps he is sick with the flu, then instead of being imperious, he would scoop his child up and place him in his own bed to get better.  Bring him Soup, crackers and care for him in his sickness.  This is the kind of King that Zechariah shows us.

The Humility that Christ has clothed himself shows up in another contradiction - the contradiction of the Flesh and the Spirit.

Christ comes to us clothed in humility.  His grace, his Spirit is like water - it is the gentlest of forces, and yet the most trans-formative of forces on the earth.  Water shapes rock, it transforms mountains, it provides life.

The Spirit versus the Flesh.  We are creatures of the Flesh yet we are also creatures of the Spirit.

That water is seeking to free us from our attachments to unclean things (to sin).  Zechariah speaks of this as the king and his kingdom coming to rid us of the weapons of war.

When I joined the Navy, I did not know how to swim.  You think that this would be an important thing for someone who might be sent away on a ship thousands of miles from the shore. In boot camp they threw us all in a pool to see who could swim.  If you couldn't, you'd thrash yourself to the side of the pool, and be assigned to the remedial swim lessons.

When we got to the swim lessons, they taught us to relax in the water, and to open up our lungs, to use our arms and legs so we could actually stay afloat.

This is an analogy for the third contradiction that shows up in the reading from St. Paul to the Romans - If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if you live according to the Spirit you will live.

Another way to think about this is how am I living - selfishly (according to the Flesh) or selflessly (according to the Spirit).

Am I spiritually downing and trashing because my arms are busy holding onto those things that lead me to Sin or am I swimming because I reaching out to live according to the Spirit.

Selfishness occurs in every sin - When I choose myself, my pleasure, my gratification, my satisfaction over God or another.

When I am busy grabbing or holding onto stuff that is for me, then I can't stay afloat (spiritually) and so I will drown.

On the other hand if I let go of the crutches that Christ is trying to free me from - from my attachment to sin then I am free to help others and to live truly according to the spirit.

This brings us to the final contradiction

My Yoke is Easy and my Burden is Light.

A Yoke is a big hunk of wood that we put on the neck of an oxen when we want to tie them to a plow and do some work - prepare a field for planting.

A Yoke, to our world today looks like an instrument of enslavement.  You are no longer free to do what you want, but you need to do what God asks.
How many of us have had to answer questions - or complaints against Christians - If you become a Christian, if you become married then you are no longer free to do what you want.

God gave us the gift of freedom in order to choose to love Him, not to do what we want - that is selfishness.  Christ invites us to take up his yoke, to allow our lives to become productive.  To prepare the soil for planting, that our sacrifice and selflessness becomes fruit for others to come to eternal life.

The Yoke is to live the Beatitudes - the commandments of Christ.  If we focus our lives to following Christ, to being his disciples then it becomes possible for Christ to transform not only us but those around us.  We then begin to respond to the grace of God that surrounds us like water and to live according to the spirit rather than according to the flesh.

• Blessed are the poor in spirit,
• Blessed are they who mourn,
• Blessed are the meek,
• Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
• Blessed are the merciful,
• Blessed are the clean of heart,
• Blessed are the peacemakers,
• Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,

Come to me all you who are labor and are burdened (with Sin) - put my Yoke upon you (live the beatitudes) for I am gentle (like a father to a sick child) and humble of heart (like water).  And you will find rest for yourselves (because you will no longer have to flee the effects of Sin).  For my Yoke is easy and my burden light (for you to illuminate to the world)...