The Labourers

Venite ad me omnes, qui laboratis, et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos. Id est, repausabo. Et vide quomodo dicit, Quia laboratis? Quis est qui laborat? Qui festinat adimplere justitiam, et non praevalet. Qui autem non vult facere justitiam, ille non laborat sub pondere legis. Utputa, si ante te videris aliquem ponderis fascem: siquidem contendisti eum tollere super te, et non potes, laboras: si autem nec tentas, nullum sentis laborem de pondere. Ergo non illos vocabat Christus ad se, qui omnino non concupiscebant facere justitiam, sed qui festinbant, et qui laborabunt, et praevalere non poterant. Adhuc etiam sermonibus istis etiam Christianos peccatorum pondere praegravatos ad requiem poenitentiae vocat. Putas quod peccatores istius mundi non laborant? Vere enim majores labores et sollicitudienes habent, quam servi Dei, dicente propheta: Contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum, et viam pacis non cognoverunt. Item ex persona peccatorum poenitentiam agentium dicit Salomon: Ergo erravimus a via veritas, et lumen justitiae non luxit nobis, et sol non ortus est nobis: lassati sumus in iniquitatis via et perditionis, ambulavimus solitudines desertas, difficiles autem vias Domini ignoravimus. Quid nobis profuit superbia nostra, aut quid divitiarum jactatio contulit nobis? Transierunt omnia illa tamquam umbra. Ergo laborant multum, et conteruntur in saeculo, sed laborem non sentiunt: spiritus enim qui seducit eos, ipse delectat in malo. Sicut enim qui susipiunt jugum Christi, Christus eos delectat in spiritu, ne fatigentur in bonis operibus: sic et qui jugum suscipiunt diaboli, diabolus eos delectat et decipit, ne discedant a malo impii usque ad mortem suam. Ideo dicit Christus: Jugum enim meum sauve est est onus meum leve. Nam etsi corpore non gravantur peccatores, nec laborant, animae tamen eorum gravatae sunt et laborant, dicente propheta de onere peccatorum: Quoniam iniquitates meae superposuerunt caput meum , sicut onus grave gravatae sunt super me. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XXVIII Source: Migne PG 56.779-780

Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I shall give you rest. 1 That is, I shall give you peace. And consider how He says it is because you labour. Who is it that labours? He who hurries to fulfill righteousness and does not achieve it. For he who does wish to be righteous, he does not labour under the weight of the Law. As if you saw someone burdened by a bundle and demanded he place it on you and you were not able to bear it, so you would labour. For if you do not try, you do not know the labour of bearing the weight. Therefore Christ does not call them to Himself who have no desire at all to be righteous, but those who hurry to it, and who labour and are not able to attain to it. Yet even with these words he calls Christians to the rest of penance from the grave weight of their sins. Do you think that sinners do not labour in this world? Truly they have greater labours and cares than the servants of God, as the Prophet says: 'Afflicted and unhappy in their ways, they did not know the way of peace.' 2 And in the person of sinners making penance Solomon says: 'So we strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine on us, and the sun did not rise on us, and we were wearied in the way of our iniquity and ruin; we walked with fruitless cares, and we disregarded the hard ways of the Lord. What has our pride profited us? Or what has the boast of our wealth brought us? All these things pass away like a shadow.' 3 Therefore they labour much, and are crushed down to dust in the world, but they are not aware of their labour, for the spirit who seduces them, he delights in evil. For as those who take up the yoke of Christ, Christ loves in the spirit, that they not weary in good works, so those who take up the yoke of the devil, the devil loves and deceives them, lest before death the impious depart from evil. Therefore Christ says: 'My yoke is easy and my burden light.' 4 For even if sinners are not burdened in their bodies, nor do they labour, yet their souls are weighed down and they labour, with the Prophet saying about the burden of sinners: 'Because my iniquities have been heaped on my head, like a heavy burden weighing down on me.' 5 Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 28 1 Mt 11.28 2 Ps 13.3 3 Wis 5.6-9 4 Mt 11.30 5 Ps 37.5