Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest...for I am meek and humble of heart. Today the Church celebrates one of its most famous saints, Francis of Assisi. Not many saints have a world-wide recognition and following as Francis of Assisi does. And this is because of the one thing that is almost synonymous to the name Francis: poverty and simplicity of life. Born to a relatively wealthy father, St. Francis chose a life of poverty as a way of identifying with those who were less fortunate in the society. Because of his love for all of God’s creation, St. Francis is the patron saint of ecology. The Gospel reading for today combines two passages – the first one has the heading The Praise of the Father while the second one is titled The Gentle Mastery of Christ. Jesus praises the Father for God's wisdom that vindicates the lowly and humble of heart. Jesus refers to them as little ones because they have recognized their nothingness before God. They are little because they have emptied themselves of those things that puff us up, things that take the place that God should occupy in us. And because they have emptied themselves of such things, the little ones become receptive to the ways of God and are taught by God. The little ones find it easy to do the will of God because they unite themselves to God's will. Jesus Christ himself is the archetype of an individual who counted himself as nothing before God. God vindicated him by giving him the strength to live a life unburdened by the unnecessary cares of the world. He was able to love, forgive, be kind, bear with wrongs, and give his life for others. It is this quality of life that Jesus is inviting us to have a share in: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...for my yoke is easy and my burden light." Jesus invites us to find rest in his life. We rest in Jesus when, like him, we turn our cares to the Father. Our lives tend to be burdensome when we insist on holding on even to things that have outlived their usefulness. Take anger as an example. Anger is good because it makes us aware that our boundaries have been breached. After being made aware, anger needs to be let go of as we make plans on how to take care of the breach. However, we most often hold on to this anger even after we have resolved the breach and when we do so, we end up shouldering something that we do not need. To find rest in Jesus, we need to let God take the reigns as we let God be our teacher and guide.