Summertime Living

By Fr. Mike Boutin -- June 29, 2009

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29

Watch the great jazz legend, Ella Fitzgerald, in this aria from the American opera, Porgy and Bess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j6avX7ebkM

"Summertime and the livin' is easy....." Summertime living is easy, isn't it? No school, maybe fewer work responsibilities, perhaps some vacation by the shore or at the summer home....Barbecues...ice cream....lazy days...and warm nights....campfires...

Summertime isn't always easy livin' though. Not for the homeless, living on the streets, who can't escape the hot sun...and don't have one home, never mind a second.

Summertime isn't easy for those living on a fixed income or out of work, or for most of us struggling to make it in these incredibly difficult economic times, either.... The vacation by the shore or the week at the summer home? Not this year, that's for sure....

College students can't find work because middle management workers who have been displaced are now taking jobs that college students used to take for the summer. High school students don't have a chance to find work, because the college students have taken all their jobs, and the towns and cities have cut all their funding for summer employment programs...so maybe the livin' ain't so easy after all for a lot of the people a lot of the time....

If your life is blessed, and summertime is easy, then stop right now and give thanks. Call to mind a favorite summer memory: splashing around at the beach, or swimming at the lake, or eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds, or a having hotdog at the ball park with your grandfather...thank the One who makes it all, and gives us all, and loves us all ways and always....

If right now your life ain't easy, then hear Jesus say to you: "My friend, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul...I took my burden upon your shoulders and carried it all the way to Calvary. I died that you might have life...and when life's burdens weigh you down, when it feels like you don't have hope, when it's tough to find a reason to go on, look to me on the cross. And remember the empty tomb....there is always hope...always life in the face of death...always a reason to go on....and in eternity, the livin' is always and for ever, easy....."

Now pray....