BRIDGEPORT—On Independence Day weekend, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano delivered a homily on the theme of accompaniment and the need to walk with others who are struggling or burdened.
In his weekly online Mass (for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time) celebrated in the Catholic Center chapel, the bishop reflected on the Gospel of Matthew (11: 25-30), “28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”
Noting that Pope Francis has consistently spoken of accompaniment, the bishop said, “When we walk with our neighbor, we are fulfilling the Lord’s commandment and making the yoke easy, the burden light for someone who walks with us.”
The bishop began his homily by recalling the Spring of 1966, when he was seven years old and accompanied his parents back to Italy for his Uncle’s wedding.
He said he remembered two things about the trip; the heavenly wedding feast which had three pasta courses, and the old farmer plowing his field with a single ox, though the yoke was designed for two.
“The farmer was walking side by side with the ox before he began to plant. It struck me as odd until I grew older and realized the great symbol and meaning,” said the Bishop, referring to the gospel passage.
“The yoke was designed to hold two side by side. If Jesus invites you and I to carry his yoke, he will be near to us every step of the way to share the burden, pain and suffering, and also when the going is easy and we walk in delight and joy.”
Referring to the writing of St. Teresa of Avila, the bishop said that believers are the hands, voices eyes and ears of God in the world since the Ascension and must walk alongside of each other.
He said it can be difficult to accompany those we love and are closest to, when they are unwilling to change, “and our attempts to share their yoke are received with deafening silence,” he said.
Parents often desperately try to reach their teenage children who resist all attempts, and many people helplessly watch family and friends slipping away in self-destructive lifestyles.
“It not easy to accompany someone who doesn’t see the need,” he said, but he urged people not to give up, and to persevere in walking with those who share our lives or are entrusted to our care.
“Perhaps with God’s grace they will ask us to stand with them, share the yoke and accompany them in the ups and downs in life,” he said.
He also challenged listeners to “share the yoke” of those who have betrayed and wounded them.
“So I ask you can you share the yoke of the person at the bottom of your list, who you and I would least like to accompany, can we summon the courage to reach out and make the offer?”
“We may discover God has many surprises for you and me, and that the yoke may be easier than we imagined because we went where no one else dared to go.”
The bishop concluded by saying that years later when his sister returned to Italy for her own wedding, the oxen were gone, replaced by tractors, and that the village had changed.
“But the yoke remains– what Christ asks us to share with our neighbor. Who among us will put our hand to the plow?”
In brief words before the end of Mass, the bishop wished all a happy and healthy Independence Day weekend. He thanked them for joining the Mass and for also praying the rosary online on Sundays and during the week.
To join in the Bishop’s Sunday Mass, live-streamed weekly, click this link or visit the YouTube Mass Playlist.
(To volunteer to lead or to find the link to join, please visit https://formationreimagined.org/summer-sunday-rosary/. No computer? No problem. If you do not have access to a computer but still wish to join, please call 301-715-8592, 845-737-3993, or 312-626-6799, and enter this ID number when prompted: 853 2949 3207 If you call in a few minutes early, you should hear some music until we begin.)
