“Oh mom, do I really have to…”  We have all heard the protests of children that are trying to get out of some chore or duty that they have to fulfill.  Every child thinks that they have something better to occupy their time than cleaning their room, doing the dishes, setting the table or taking the trash out.  Of course, we already know what the answer will be to the child’s protests:  “Yes, you have to.”  The parent understands that the child needs to learn responsibility and that they must do their part in taking care of the home and fulfilling their duties in family life.  Love makes demands upon us.  Love requires that we learn to take care of others, to help one another out and to shoulder our part of the burden of daily life.  As children we learn early that we are part of a family and that we have to work together as a family to take care of our home.  In the working document for the Synod on the Family that took place a decade ago, it is pointed out, “In a family, a person learns a sense of the common good and experiences the goodness of living together.  Without the family, a person is unable to emerge from his individualism, since it is the only place to learn the power of love to sustain life, and “without a love which is trustworthy, nothing could truly keep men and women united.  Human unity would be conceivable only on the basis of utility, on a calculus of conflicting interests or on fear, but not on the goodness of living together, not on the joy which the mere presence of others can give.”

     A family is a school of humanity.  It teaches us the values that we need in order to live together in society.  The working document for the synod also acknowledged this:  “Considerable interest is placed on the formative value of love in the family for not only children but all of its members.  As such, the family is a “school of love,” a “school of communion,” and a “gymnasium for relationships,” that is, the privileged place to learn to build meaningful relationships which help a person develop a capacity for giving one’s self…In this sense, the family can be considered as the “basic school of humanity,” and thus regarded as irreplaceable.”  Families face challenges and difficulties in life but they learn to face them together and they learn that the bonds of love that they share allows them to work together with others and to share their common burdens.  In this way the burden is made lighter and easier to bear when we know that we do not have to bear it alone.

     In the family we learn to wear the gentle yoke of love.  We learn that we are not alone in this world to pursue only our selfish pleasures but that we have responsibilities to one another to share our resources, our joys and our sorrows.  We learn that there is a greater law of love that governs life, greater than the law of selfish interest and hedonistic pursuits.  We learn that true freedom does not come without responsibility and that human rights must also involve duties.  The bonds of love that we share may even ask that we sacrifice for one another to pursue a greater common good.

     In light of our experience in the family we can begin to understand our gospel passage today.  God has chosen to use simple means such as family life to reveal his will and life’s truths to the “little ones.”  I think that sometimes parents might find that when their children go away to college they forget what they have been taught all of their lives in the family because now they think of themselves as the “wise and the learned” rather than the “little ones.”  What we have been taught in love by those who love us is far more valuable than what we might learn in books.  Often it is at this time that young people might want to put aside religion and follow the world’s teachings.  They want to take off the yoke of Jesus and put on the yoke of a secular world.  Jesus encourages his followers today to:  “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”  True religion is to take upon ourselves the yoke of Jesus and to learn from him for we know that he is “meek and humble of heart.” 

     Meekness is not fear, it is a trust in a greater power and humility is not weakness, it is the strength of seeking a higher truth.  The gentle heart of Jesus teaches us the power and truth of love – the love of God and the love of our families.  It is in this love that we can find rest in a world of competition, struggle and indifference.  This love teaches us that we are not alone but that there are those who see greatness in us and who help us to realize the fullness of life.