“how much does a donkey weigh” — A Holy Souls Hermitage Special (on depression or prompt joy)

There are, of course, a zillion people who come to the blog by way of search engines. I can see the first few words of any search on any given day in the stats page of the blog. Sometimes there are real zingers. One I saw was “how much does a donkey weigh”. Now, I must say, it is with great pride that I note that holysoulshermitage came up in the search for donkeys! But, to answer the question, in a bit of a convoluted way…

Donkeys are intelligent, only do what they understand (not being merely stubborn like mules), and can sing. Not only that, they are made to carry burdens, and are simply one with what they carry, much the same as men driving cars are one with the machine, while women simply push the vehicle around with the accelerator. (Sorry!) At any rate, if the burden donkeys carry is as light as heaven itself, so are they. There are donkeys who carried the Blessed Mother and Christ Child down to Bethlehem from Nazareth to be born, then down to Egypt, and then all the way back to Nazareth. Then there is the lucky donkey who had shouts about his ears and palms beneath his feet as he carried Christ Jesus into Jerusalem, where He would offer Himself for our salvation.

You can bet that such donkeys were sure footed and enthusiastic with their burdens. Same way with us, no?

If we are depressed, looking to ourselves for strength, and forget that the circumstances in which we live are also the divinely appointed/permitted cross that we carry, our burden is very heavy indeed, and we ourselves seem to weigh more than we can even pretend to drag about during the day. We become stubborn as mules. But all we have to undestand is that our Lord is with us, and that such a burden will then make us sure of foot and prompt in our eagerness, whatever feelings and emotions and physical difficulties we otherwise carry as a, in fact, glorious cross.