Burning Up or Burning Out?

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, May 25th, 2025:
Sixth Sunday of Easter

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Acts
15.1-2, 22-29

​Certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the Apostles and the elders.

Then the Apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole Church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, with the following letter:

“The brothers, both the Apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.

“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood and from what is strangled, and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” 

Whew – today’s first reading is a serious “call to action.” Or, is it a... “call to less action”? Whatever type of call it is, it is calling my name. Is it calling yours? 

The reading tells us “certain individuals” had gone and influenced some of the Gentiles living in Antioch, and they were overburdening them with unnecessary precepts to become Christians. These individuals were telling the Gentiles that they needed to be circumcised, as the Jews who had become Christian had already been circumcised. 

What I love to see right off the bat in this reading is how seriously Paul, Barnabus, and the other disciples take this misguided teaching. After debating and dissenting amongst themselves, they travel to take counsel with other apostles. Once they’ve reached a conclusion, not only do they send four of them to the Gentile community to right the wrong, but they also send it clearly written in a letter. This way their words can’t be misinterpreted further and the message of the Holy Spirit will be made known. 


While there are some moral requirements they outline as necessary, the message is clear: there is no need for circumcision for the Gentiles to be baptized as followers of Christ.

“My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

I wonder how many times I have been one of these “certain individuals”... heaping up weights on others or on myself, setting higher-than-high expectations that are not actually a part of God’s plan for our lives of faith. Or how many times have I listened to the voices of “certain individuals” instead of the voice of the Holy Spirit? 

What came out from the council of the apostles in today’s reading is that, for the Gentiles, circumcision was an unnecessary burden. I can say I’m not usually going around telling people they need to get circumcised… But what other unnecessary burdens do I allow to govern my sense of worthiness? 

“My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

Jesus is not a task-master, counting up the hours we’ve spent in prayer or the number of items we accomplished on our agenda each day. In fact, we don’t achieve salvation at all; it’s given to us as His free gift and we just receive it. In this culture, we can so easily allow productivity to become an idol. We can take on over-functioning as a way of life. And we can even be misguided into thinking this is what God wants of us; that this is how we’ll make Him happy and get to heaven.

Of course, in the right time and place, we should strive to live well and keep the precepts of the Church and to be perfect (in love) as the Heavenly Father is perfect! 

But Jesus is not a task-master. He is first and foremost a Lover, and our Saviour. He is the one who chooses us and sustains us, not the other way around. And when the whole thing has been weighed in the balance, the message He sends to us is loud and clear: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

Instead of burning out by striving to replace Jesus as the saviour and do everything ourselves, let us burn up with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Let us rest in Him, and let Him rest on us.




Sister Angela Burnham

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