The opening line of today’s reading from Isaiah can stir mixed emotions: “To whom can you liken me as an equal?” At first, this question from our God may sound intimidating, distant, or even authoritarian. And certainly, it commands reverence and total obedience. But the words also reveal something far more consoling: we are not the ones in control. Yet do we really believe in this truth?
Throughout our lives, we constantly try to divinize whatever grabs our attention or gives us immediate pleasure. We attempt to place created things on the same level as God—our careers, our interests, our phones (guilty!), the approval of others, and most of all, ourselves. It is an exhausting way to live. True conversion begins the moment we finally acknowledge that nothing and no one compares with our God.
That is why, when Jesus invites us in today’s Gospel, “Come to me,” his primary desire is to give us rest. Precisely because no one equals Him, no one can carry our burdens the way He does. St. Peter’s exhortation comes to mind: “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).
Jesus shows us the deepest form of hospitality. He is not a rival to our happiness; He is its only source. And what He offers is not a fleeting emotion or a moment of comfort, but His yoke. Not because he stands at a distance watching us struggle, but because he chooses to suffer with us. “Com-passion,” literally “to suffer with.”
Ironically, the more readily we take on His yoke, just as He took on our humanity, the more rest and relief we find. And perhaps, if we surrender to that unequaled love, we will enter the Christmas season not merely relieved but transformed, united to the one who truly has no equal. .
