Sometimes it happens that we meet somone along the way just once and maybe for a very short time, but they make a very deep impression on us.  Something we never forget; as if God is trying to tell us something;  and it lingers in our memories for years like a precious reminder.  As I told you last week many years ago, I worked for a couple of months in the German city of Aachen which is close to the Holland and Belgian borders. It’s the city of Charlemange or Charles the Great, he was King of the Franks in the 8th century and was crowned emepror of the Romans  by the Pope Adrian in 800. Charlemange succeeded in uniting th majority of western and central Europe and was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe after the fall of the western Roman empire, three centuries earler.  Every corner of Aachen has something to tell us about the history of Europe.  After visiting the basilica I went into the square,  and there I met a family,  with a young boy, maybe twelve years old in a wheelchair.  He was paralysed and his arms were out-strertched as if he was on a cross.  What I most remember about him was his beautiful smile, he and his parents,  radiated serenity and peace. I then noticed behind him there was a marble crucifix,  life size.  And for a moment I thought I was looking a two images of the suffering Christ.  One in marble and one in flesh and blood. In todays gospel, Jesus speaks to each one of us and invites us:  ‘come to me all you who labour and are overburdend, and I will give you  rest. Shoulder my yoke, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light”. Whenever I read these words,  I think of that little boy in Aachen.  Whenever I feel like complaining, because things are not turning out  the way I want them to,  I feel his courage.  So let us listen to these words of Jesus today as if we were listening to them for the first time.  And let us remember that sometimes the gospel can come to us as a spoken word;  sometimes as a writtern word,  and sometimes it may be a person,  who we meet by chance along the way. Just like that little boy and his family in Aachen