I remember in my younger days, I had friends living in a village and I would drop by their house for tea. I recall some of them whose parents were farmers and they owned different farm animals, each animal having a different purpose and function. Among the animals they owned, the ox or buffalo seemed quite fascinating, since the ox was often depended upon to prepare the fields for planting. What would normally be done is to place a yoke upon the shoulders of the ox so that it could pull the plough to dig up the earth to enable seeds to be planted easily. In some cases, the yoke was designed so that two oxen could be used to plough the fields. Why two oxen? Firstly, two oxen are better than one, and the field could be ploughed faster. Secondly, one oxen was usually a more experienced one and the other a new one, so that the experienced one could guide or initiate the new one into the task of pulling a plough. So a yoke which could fit two oxen was preferred, for obvious reasons.
In today's Gospel, Jesus is inviting us to shoulder His yoke and learn from Him. Not only that, His yoke is easy and His burden light. Jesus is beckoning us to let Him lead us and guide us as we plough through the fields of life, and when we are humble and willing to let Him do so, we have no need to worry or fear, for He is there for us. May we take this opportunity to shoulder Jesus' yoke, and let Him show us the way to His Kingdom.
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