Carry each other's burdens!

[In his sermon at the New Roverside Church in 1967, Martin Luther King emphasized what I would like to emphasize very much: that for him the war in Vietnam was first and foremost a moral problem! And if it is a moral problem, then it is a Christian problem, irrespective of any politics! So it is a problem for all of us... With this in mind, the passage I have read out now takes on a very concrete practical meaning: "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ."The apostle Paul says this as a great exhortation to all believers in Jesus. But let's try to hear it as if it were not an exhortation, but simply a statement of fact, a statement of fact: "Bear ye one another's burdens" - then it would still stand. It would still be true, because it is true that today we are carrying each other's burdens, wittingly or unwittingly! Today, with the incredible acceleration of communications and transport, people living on the most distant continents are so close to each other that sharing each other's burdens has become an almost inevitable part of life. We are increasingly aware that peoples and countries cannot live on this earth as if they were on separate planets, in different parts of space, living their lives independently of each other. If, thousands of kilometres away, a few hundred people fall out of the great human race because of a bomb attack, the whole forest will shake! We are learning more and more that all humanity is one cohesive whole. What the apostle Paul said about the members of the body belonging together in a Christian church is also valid and true today from a global perspective. Paul's analogy is that in a human body we have different members, different parts of the body, yet the many different members form one body, so much so that if one member suffers, for example, if a tooth hurts, all the members suffer with it. Every parent knows that the greatest suffering is not to see his or her child suffer, but to see his or her child suffer. One cannot rejoice when the other suffers, one cannot enjoy the richness of life while the other is miserable. Or if he does: then it is a serious moral defect! In a family, all joys and all sorrows can only be shared, whether one or the other, mutually shared by all the members. This is the law of life. And today, almost one big family community is not just a nation or a part of the world, but the whole of humanity. We, all kinds of people on this planet, on this Earth, live in a community of destiny like a multitude of people travelling in a ship on a great ocean. And I once said that if the ship leaks somewhere below, it is a threat to the lives of those on board! The passengers of a ship have one fate, whether they want it or not!
So we carry each other's burdens. The burdens of distant, foreign peoples weigh on us whether we want them to or not, because God created this humanity in such a way that the life of one man is invisibly linked to that of another, the fate of one man depends on that of another! It follows from our human community of destiny that if one member, one class of people, one nation suffers, the others must necessarily suffer with it! But this inevitable, necessary bearing of the burdens of others does not mean the fulfilment of the law of Christ, of love! Only if this compulsion becomes voluntary in our lives! So I should not carry the burdens of others because they are already on me, because I cannot help carrying them, but so that I can be of help to the other person, so that I can lighten his burden. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he gave the almost exhortative command, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ." In short and simply: help one another, people!
It is a man's greatest privilege and dignity to help others. I would almost dare to say that a man is worth as much as he helps others. And such helping others is something that every human being is capable of, even one who lives from the very beginning by helping others. I once visited a man who had been lying motionless in bed for four decades, who could only do the most basic necessities of life with the help of others, and yet his life was not without benefit, he had helped many people: hundreds of people came to this patient for serious, confidential spiritual conversations. Many have received encouragement, consolation, advice from him; I have also. Of course, sadly, the reverse is also true: one has every opportunity to use oneself for the benefit of others, and yet no one takes advantage of the fact that one is alive at all. That is the most terrible thing in this society: living for oneself. It is when one does not want to know about the other person, cannot rejoice with the rejoicing, weep with the weeping. They wall themselves in, live an introverted life, they don't care about others, and they don't even let the other person see into their heart. He does not like to interfere in other people's affairs, or if he does, there is no thanks, because this interference is not usually done to lighten the other person's burden, but to rummage in his faults, to bleach his shame, to exaggerate his weaknesses! It is wonderful that a believer gains most when he gives. He gives of his time, his money, a little thoughtfulness, kindness, understanding, love - to someone else! Perhaps the reason why we are often so poor spiritually is because we know so little about the way of spiritual enrichment, whose motto is: I give!
I knew an elderly, lonely woman who literally lived to help others! In a strange way, she was almost always ungrateful to those she helped. I once asked her why she almost sacrificed herself for others? In reply, he took a small crumpled piece of paper from his desk drawer and held it out to me. On the old yellowed piece of paper was printed the sentence: 'I will only go through this life once. So when I meet someone I can do a favor for, or do anything good for, I don't delay, I do it right away, because I may never come down this road again and I may never see them again!" In this woman's life I saw this Word almost embodied, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." I am well aware that many would defend themselves against Paul's exhortation by saying, "How can I bear the burdens of others when I have enough of my own, I can hardly bear my own?! Carried by those who have room on their shoulders, but not on mine, and more than enough on mine! But! Yet, in some incomprehensible way, the burdens of our own life are only so heavy and unbearable as long as we carry only that, that is, only our own. Our burdens become lighter when we add to them someone else's! And the burden of that other becomes almost a burden of kindness to us as soon as we take it upon ourselves. Let me illustrate this with just one small example. Someone once saw a little girl carrying her even younger sister on her back. She said to him, "Aren't you carrying a heavy burden, little girl?" The girl replied, "It's not a burden, it's my sister!" It's not a burden, but rather a blessing, as I said before: enrichment!
Or let me use another very common but very illustrative metaphor: In a very cold winter, a wanderer, tired, exhausted, shivering, sat down on the side of the road, his limbs already numb, his eyes haunted by sleep, if he fell asleep, he would freeze to death... Suddenly, not far from himself, he saw someone, an even more tired wanderer, half buried in the snow. With the last of his strength, he dragged himself towards him and began to rub him, to save him from certain death by frost. And he rubbed and warmed it until he himself was warmed, revived and now the two of them continued their journey. Somehow that's always the way when someone is ready to help someone else. Taking on the burdens of others miraculously does not multiply or aggravate the burdens on our own shoulders, but rather lightens our own. If one does not want to crumble under the burdens that life has placed on him, take on the burdens of others, help to carry the burdens of others: you will see how new strength will come to you and how the languid soul will be refreshed! This command to bear one another's burdens: it turns out to be not a command, but a blessing, a gift, a privilege. Of course it is, for that is why the Apostle Paul calls it the law of Christ!
This word: to bear - a verb of exercise, implying a continuous action, not just a momentary act. There is in it the lasting, the persistent, the renewed action. This bearing can take many forms: bearing the burdens of others is any action by which we make the other person understand that we are not indifferent to his or her suffering, but are concerned about it, and want to help. It may be a serious conversation or consolation, a compassionate, warm look or a handshake, perhaps a small Christmas parcel on the sickbed, or, as today: a contribution through a material offering to help our unknown, distant brothers and sisters in humanity to alleviate their suffering of all kinds, to heal their physical and spiritual wounds! And above all, prayer. In our daily prayers we can effectively carry the burdens of those who live farthest away.
"Carry one another's burdens" - the only One who has fulfilled this law without fail on this earth is the One who gave it: Jesus! He was the One who took the greatest burden of all of us, the weight of our sins, upon Himself and carried it to the end, even to the death of the cross. This burden we no longer have to carry, nor anyone else, and compared to this burden, all the other burdens of life are but a trifle... This bearing of His burdens is not only an example for us, but a source of strength from which we too can draw to fulfil the law of Christ in a fruitful and blessed way! Turning towards Him, the great Bearer of the burden, we now ask Him Him Himself:
"Train us to unity,
As thou art one with thy Father,
Until we are one in you at last
All hearts under heaven;
Until the pure light of your Holy Spirit
Shall be our light and our sun,
And the world will see at last,
That we are your disciples!"
(Canticle 395, verse 3)
Amen
Date: 14 December 1969.