Today’s Gospel passage tells the story of a woman who is burdened. Her life circumstances allowed her not to be able to stand erect, can you imagine always looking up or sideway? Never seeing as you are supposed to see. Her illness wasn’t caused by sin – that was what God graced her with.
What burdens do you have? What do you struggle with? Some of you struggle with drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, family problems, financial strain. I’m not judging we all have burdens, some we cause, some we feel we cannot escape from, some that were given to us, and others that materialize over time. Our burdens don’t define us. Our identity is already decided. You are not alcoholic, you are a child of God who struggles with alcoholism. We have the freedom to live, love, pray, work, exist, and belong as children of God.
About 10 years ago my Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. He degenerated slowly from a very strong person to one who now just sits in a chair in a nursing home and mainly sleeps. He has to be showered, changed, fed and so much more. Can you imagine the pain and sorrow this has caused my Mom. Imagine my own sorrow. The man who taught me to fish, to play baseball, to work hard in life, and so very much more reduced to existing. He doesn’t even recognize me. As you imagine my burden, imagine his! The toll it has taken on him is far worse than the toll it has taken on me. I can see the loss, the confusion, the emptiness in his eyes. Through his burden, through my burden he is still my Dad; reduced by God’s design to his current state. We know not the hour, it isn’t guaranteed.
Pray, live and love. We all are carrying burdens they don’t have to weigh us down.
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