Come to me all you who labor and find life burdensome, and I will give you rest.

(Matthew 11:28)

A few ordinary phrases, when proclaimed by Christ, take on extraordinary meaning.   Think, for example, of the phrase, "bread" in the Lord's prayer.   Or, again, the word “life” in the phrase: “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.' Even “death” is redefined in Jesus' comparison of it with what he called the second death.  

“Rest” likewise, is one of those electric words--charged-up and redefined in the divine vocabulary.   What new meaning, what mystery lies in the invitation to rest ?   Only those who dare to come and lay down their burdens know the deeper meaning of rest.