Maybe it’s been this way forever, but we weren’t aware. Growing up there were no social media through which the whole world flows into ours, and not always gently. Today we can know, with great detail, the wonders and the atrocities happening around us. Often this bombardment fills us with a sense of discomfort and inner unrest. Anxiety is intensely attacking us. Even very young children are suffering and em from this atmosphere of anxiousness.
I’m not sure that the churches don’t, perhaps unwittingly, contribute to feelings of interior agitation. A message, not from Jesus, might come forth from them that sows seeds of doubt about one’s goodness and eternal fate. Society can put out the warning that there’s something very wrong with you if you don’t (behave, dress, think, choose, etc.) as the current norms or style dictate. Anxiety is coming at us from all sides. How might we deal with it?
The final verses of Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 11 (Matthew 11:29) give us a clue. Jesus first says, “Take my yoke and put it on.” Yoke was one of the words used by the Israelites to refer to the Law. Over time, the Law became translated into 613 commandments, instead of the Ten. It became very difficult for the average person to follow the Law then. Only a privileged few succeeded. What is this yoke that Jesus asks us to put on? He condensed the Law into love God, love neighbor, love self. Still not easy, but much simpler.
Then Jesus says, “Learn from me.” He offers his own life, rooted in God’s absolute and all-embracing love, as an example. When we focus on God’s love and not on all the ways we might get life wrong and get lost, we don’t need to pay as much attention to the other voices expecting, or demanding, us to live according to their rules. Jesus, alone, is our model and reference.
Jesus continues, “For I am meek and humble at core.” It helps to understand the virtues of meekness and humility as practiced by Jesus. Meekness is in no way weakness. Meekness is strength that doesn’t need to prove itself by making others feel it. If we are strong, in some way, thanks be to God! The meek person is confident of his/her strength, and knows it comes from God. There is no type of bullying in meekness. Humility on the other hand is both knowing and embracing the truth about ourselves – we are neither God nor trash – but little, gifted and beloved. And that’s okay.
The end of this verse is, “And you will find rest for yourselves.” If we know we are loved by God, and we know who we are and don’t need to prove anything, interior rest will be ours. If we are trying to love ourselves and those around us as our way of loving God, of course imperfectly (perfection is neither human nor a virtue, God knows us better than we know ourselves, that we’re meant to be perfectly imperfect), we can be at peace. There are no artificially manufactured demands on us from within us or from anyone else. This is Jesus’ antidote to anxiety.