Finding peace

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:28-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121025.cfm

We are a society that has a bias for action and hard work. We find our value through what we produce. Our society is driven by a competitive nature. We have a tendency of seeing the world as a place of winners and losers. We are entertained by spectating and participating in sports and other competitive games. Even the way we market and sell products drives us to have a sense of missing out or that we’re better than others given the products or brands we associate ourselves with. We are always comparing ourselves to others. We downplay the successes of others to make ourselves feel better. We celebrate the failures of our competitors. We live in a state of comparative analysis where we’re always ranking, rating, and positioning ourselves and our group with others.

How great would it be to do what you want to do without it being referential! Do we even know what we want without being referential? Can we even break from our sense of obligation or competition? Can we move past self-preservation or our fear of missing out?

In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks of there being another way. We can leave all of this dog-eat-dog. It is in following this call of Jesus that one finds a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. It is our judgments that bring us down, not the work or labor. By becoming humble and meek, we find peace.