14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Zechariah 9:9–10
Psalm 145:1–2, 8–9, 10–11, 13–14
Romans 8:9, 11–13
Matthew 11:25–30
The deepest truths often hide in plain sight. Humans search for something that is with them all the time. Many can recall from the movie The Wizard of Oz that “there’s no place like home.” Opening our eyes to what is around us is the way to true joy and rest. We will find our true home, our place of rest, when we see as God sees.
The Gospel for today captures one moment in Jesus’ earthly experience when He expresses this truth with delight: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”
Little ones are those whose eyes are open to see what is right before them. Children have this capacity until the wounds of life create obstacles. Jesus’ experience shows us that the capacity is written into human nature and can be recaptured if we are ready to see it.
Jesus continues: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
In many Gospel accounts we see Jesus expressing frustration that those He encounters are unable to receive what He offers. In this moment, however, Jesus Himself seems to come to a new realization that leads Him to praise God.
The Son is known only by the Father. The unique relationship shared by the Father and the Son is so intimate that no one else can enter it. And yet, when the Son chooses to reveal the Father, those open to receive what is made known do enter. Little ones can accept this.
Jesus makes the invitation clear: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
The humility of Jesus is such that He is willing to share the intimacy of His relationship with the Father with “all who labor and are burdened.” This certainly fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy of the coming of the king, the just savior who is meek, the one who “shall proclaim peace to the nations.”
The image of the yoke at first seems to be a burden that is added. However, the yoke is an instrument that lifts and shares the burden. Jesus is offering to take the load of our burdens onto His shoulders and to guide us in the right direction to accomplish what we have been entrusted to do.
Entering into the intimacy of the relationship of Father and Son, we are freed to see God as He is made known to us and then to make known the God who is revealed to us, in the intimacy of our own relationship with Him, to those to whom we wish to reveal Him.
It is God’s gracious will that we come to know Him through Jesus. He is revealed to us through the Son, and we can recognize this gift if we become little ones. All things are given to the Son, and so He can be our savior, our just king, the One Who guides us to become all that we are called to be.
St. Paul reminds us that we live in the Spirit and that the Spirit will bring us to the life that Jesus has won for us. “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
The psalmist puts on our lips what we will say as we live this life, now and into eternity: “I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.”
Who is God for you? What does He reveal to you about who you are? To whom do you wish to reveal Him? Can you rejoice in this and exclaim with Jesus: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”