“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so will you fulfil the law of Christ.” — Gal. vi. 2

At first sight, my brethren, this may appear to us a rather difficult way of fulfilling the law of Christ. We think, and very often express the thought, that our own burdens are already heavy enough ; but to bear, over and above these, the burdens of others would seemingly make life unendurable, and that it would apply rather to the Apostle’s heroic age than to ours. Such, I say, might be our first thought in regard to these words ; but it does not need much reflection to see that such is not the meaning of the Apostle, and that his command is as much applicable in our time as it was in his.

We who are Catholics profess, in words at least, to be fulfilling the law of Christ; but, unfortunately, our works are too often tainted by the spirit of the world, and that spirit is selfish. It bids each one consider simply himself. Never mind your neighbor, it says ; he must fight his own battle, and if he is weak and unable to do it, let him go under. Such is the way the world acts, and we but too often follow it, and the fruits of it can be seen in the countless burdens that men have to bear to-day, and that their neighbors allow them to bear, because they do not have the Christian spirit, and do not undertake in the right way, the way pointed out by the Apostle, to help them. Who does not see that the Christian spirit bids us help, with both sympathy and money and other goods of this world, those multitudes of unfortunates whom the world despises, but who are the true friends of Jesus Christ?

But it was not so much of the burdens of this life that the Apostle was speaking. He had in mind, as is evident from the context, a far worse burden, one that causes much more suffering than any temporal loss, and that is the burden of sin. ” Bear ye one another’s burdens.” How can we help others to bear their burden of sin ? How can we lighten it or free them from it altogether ? My brethren, it is easy enough. Have you never, in a time of great sorrow, felt the consolation that came to you from the loving words of some friend ? He did not say much, perhaps, but you knew his words came from the heart ; that he sympathized with you, and, even as he spoke, the weight seemed lifted from you. He had helped you bear your burden, and his words of consolation had lightened, and, perhaps, entirely taken away your sorrow.

Thus might we help others bear their burden of sin by kind, cheering words, by words of encouragement and hope. Who can tell how much good we might thus do ? Who can tell how many lives that are now full of misery might have been made lives of happiness by a few kind words ? If, when the first misstep of a young man became known at home, the father had only spoken to him words of sympathy and hopefulness instead of words of bitter reproach, had only helped him bear his burden of horror and remorse and have led him to repentance ! Instead of this, parents and others drive sinners to worse things by violent language and by coldness and uncharitableness. There would be much less sin in the world if the sinful and miserable were dealt with in a spirit of 1 charity rather than in that of severity.

So, I say, each one of us can help others, more or less, to bear their burdens. It may be some one who has been burdened with sin for years. He longs to be freed from it, but he is afraid ; he has become a coward; and the word that would help him on, that would give him courage and hope, is the word of kindness that any one of his friends may speak.

But you may say, “I never have a chance to do that; no one ever comes to me ; they go to the priest. “My brethren, that may be so; but why is it? Are we not to blame ourselves? Do we cultivate the qualities that would inspire others to come to us. When we hear that our neighbor has fallen, do we not make it a matter of gossip, and perhaps puff ourselves up, as did the Pharisee of old, and thank God that we are not like the rest of men ? We can help others. There are many persons living in the world who have thus done untold good, who have comforted the sorrowful and cheered the despairing, who have won by their words of kindness and hope souls that otherwise would have been lost forever.

 

Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year
By the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893