scavenger hunt

Matthew 11:25-30

"Come to me all who labor and burden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon yourself and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

How many of you are familiar with scavenger hunts. A scavenger hunt is when a list of items is given to someone or a group of people and they are sent forth to locate and find the items listed. The first person who completes the list, finds all things on the list, is the victor.

In my first parish assignment, we use to do this with the youth of the parish on our 30 hour famine. From Holy Thursday to midnight of Good Friday we would invite the youth to fast. We would also gather them to together and do different things on Friday so as to help them enter into solidarity with Christ.

We would take them to cemetery so that would realize that Christ is one with the dead because of his death. Christ in his grave hallows every grave.

We would take them to the nursing home so that they could visit the residents, those people who are forgotten by society to help them realize that the blood of Christ is shed for all people, known and unknown.

We would do the way of the cross so that they could experience a little bit of what Christ went through on Good Friday.

We would also have them do a scavenger hunt. We would divide them in groups and give them a sheet of paper with a list of food items or paper items on it and then drop them off in a neighborhood. They would go door to door, looking for these particular items; perhaps they needs a can of tuna, or a bag of rice or a box of Mac and Cheese.

Sometimes we would include things like toilette paper or kleenex or even "feminine products."

And basically these items would be used to feed the poor. So in some sense they would go door to door begging for food so that they would know what it as like when someone would come begging at their door.

The first group to find all things on the list was victorious.

This is a scavenger hunt.

This mentality is also how many people pursue happiness in life. They treat happiness as if it were a scavenger hunt. They have a list they receive from the world and they busy their life trying to fill it with all these things hoping it will make them happy.

But in the end, this pseudo happiness is fleeting and they are left empty and unsatisfied.

JEsus in today's gospel invites us to leave the list behind. He invites us to stop the madness and to quit the scavenging.

"Come to me, all of you who are labored and burdened and I will give you rest..."

What a beautiful invitation.

Jesus invites us to come to him. He doesn't want something from us; rather, He wants us, whole and entire. What an exchange. We give him our empty search, our failure, our disappointments and in return he gives himself as the foundation of rest we seek.

This rest, is not sleep. Jesus does not promise us 8 hours of shuteye. Rather, this rest is the Sabbath rest, that true communion with the divine we experience in the book of Genesis. Is this 'rest' nothing less than true happiness.

But in order to receive this happiness there is a prerequisite.

Right before these beautiful lines i have quoted above Jesus say the following, "I praise you Father, you have revealed these things to the little ones."

Jesus once again directs our gaze to the child amongst us. This is the primary image Jesus uses to help us understand the kingdom of God.

The greek term for little ones is actually a word that means, 'infant.' In greek,the word infant is a word that literally means 'no-word' or "not -speaking," The infant is one who has no say of its own. The infant is one that is completer dependent on the word and say of another.

This is essential. It is this dependence that affords the child the opportunity to grow and mature. How does a child learn? A child primarily earns by imitation. The child learns to speak by imitation the mouth of its parents. The child learns to walk by imitating the movement of its parents. At very foundation of our life is the necessity of imitation.

The child's expression of self to the world is based in the ability to imitate the other.

Is this not what Jesus ask from us when he invites us to "take his yoke upon ourselves and to learn from him who is meek and humble of heart."

We must be dependent and we must surrender so that we can imitate him and thus know true happiness.

The greek word for meek is a word that is often translated as 'gentle' but in reality is it used to describe a domesticated animal. The difference between a wild dog and our pet dog is the fact that the pet knows the voice of the master. The voice of the master becomes it voice. The pet also knows where its home is, where its water bowl and feed bowl await him.

The wild dog knows no home nor heeds no voice and thus remains in exile. The pet, however, knows the comfort of security in the words and voice of its master.

Jesus invites us to be domesticated. He invites us to heed the voice of the master. He invites us to no longer have a say on our own or to do it our own way but rather to surrender to the Father;s way for us. The Father's Word must become our word, his say is now our way.

Jesus invites us to be humble. Thus, we are bowed low. This bowing low is the proper disposition of the one who worships. the humble one is the one who is willing and ready to give thanks and praise to God above.

Humility in greek also means to reduce the swelling. SOmeone who is prideful we say their head is swollen. Humility is about deflating our swelling. We no longer depend on ourselves but we recognize we are needy. We realize that it is only by the grace of God and his strength we are able to move forward. We do nothing on our own.

We must guard our neediness. We must grow in our dependence. Only then do we truly open ourselves to receive the gift of happiness that awaits us in Christ.

We must inventory our life. Where have we refused to surrender to God? Where do we hold on tight? In our time, talent, treasure, and sexuality, in all these areas, where we refuse to let Jesus be the Lord all, there we shall encounter the essential reality of our own unhappiness.

He is Lord of all or He is Lord of nothing at all. "Come to me" He invites us. He wants all of each of us, whole and entire. If you keep from him, then you keep yourself from true happiness.

We must yoke ourselves to Christ, that is bind ourselves to him and only then are we truly free and thus truly happy.

Be needy; be dependent; surrender all; be happy; In God alone is our soul at rest.