To take on the responsibility of discipleship is to take on one another’s burden. To bear the yoke of Christ is to give ourselves to His work of healing and reconciliation.
Let us in this Advent recommit ourselves to embracing an attitude of compassion and empathy, as we struggle through these difficult days.
Finally let us remember, as we hear the metaphor of taking up the yoke of Jesus, that a yoke binds two individuals together. It is a reminder that we are not alone in these challenging moments. Jesus is with us, willing to help us carry the burden. Let us be open to His invitation.
In a remarkable essay in The New York Times the day before Thanksgiving, Meghan Markel, the Duchess of Sussex, tells the story of her miscarriage. As she lay in a hospital bed, she recalled a moment when she and her husband, Prince Harry, were finishing a long exhausting tour of South Africa. Meghan was breastfeeding her infant son and ‘trying to keep a brave face in the very public eye.”
“Are you OK?” a journalist asked. She answered him honestly, Meghan writes, “not knowing that what I said would resonate with so many – new moms and older ones, and anyone, who had, in their own way, been silently suffering. My off-the-cuff reply seemed to give permission to speak the truth. But it wasn’t responding honestly that helped me most, it was the question itself.
“‘Thank you for asking,’ ‘I said. ‘Not many people have asked if I’m OK.’”
So, in this difficult Advent of illness and fear and isolation from loved ones, the Duchess of Sussex writes, “let us commit to asking others Are you OK? As much as we may disagree, as physically distanced as we may be, the truth is we are more connected than ever because of all we have individually and collectively endured this year.
“We are adjusting to a new normal where faces are concealed by masks, but it’s forcing us to look into one another’s eyes – sometimes filled with warmth other times with tears. For the first time, in a long time, as human beings, we are really seeing one another.”