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14th Sunday of Ordinary Time A
July 6, 2014
Reading I: Zechariah 9:9-10
Responsorial Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
Reading II: Romans 8:9, 11-13
Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30
Gospel Mt 11:25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“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.
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.”
“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.”
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070614.cfm
This passage of Matthew's gospel is special in a number of ways. Coming about half-way through his narrative, it may be seen as a pivotal point on which the rest turns. It contains three parts, none of which is found in Mark, and while two are also in Luke, virtually word for word, and the middle one would be at home in John such is its content and style. the third one is unique to Matthew's gospel.
Part A is in the typical form of a Jewish prayer: 'Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth...' The content of the prayer is about revelation, and teaches us why it is that some "get it" and others don't. In the language of the times the cause is seen as God's will. In our terms we may do better if we recognise an instruction on 'how to proceed', or a warning that our problem may be that we are going about it in the Wrong Way.
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.
- To "get it" we have to put aside, consciously and deliberately, sooner or later, the conceit of knowing what we are looking at and how we will process what we see. This has been my experience again this week. After days of trying to write this introduction, full of ideas of how I would interpret this passage, after making a new start every day and getting nowhere, being close to despair I finally surrendered last night and acknowledged that I could say nothing true, nothing that would be nourishing, nothing of interest to anyone, except it is given me by the Holy Spirit. Gradually through the night the ideas have come, and this morning I rose early, feeling fresh and alert, confident that what I write may make some little sense at least to one or other of our readers.
It is the attitude of children who know they can't do it by themselves. 'Lift me up,' the child says willingly, confidently. 'Show me.'
In the present climate many are looking at the revelation embodied in Jeshua of Nazareth, the Human One, and confessing they cannot see much of the divine in it at all. It can all be reduced to human myth-making. Standing opposite are those who would say that the Christian revelation is destined for the simple; intellectuals shut themselves out with their searching for logical explanations. Earlier translations read that 'these things' have been hidden from the wise and learned and revealed to babes. More recent translations have 'infants' or 'little ones' and the Jerusalem Bible that we read in Australian churches has 'mere children'. One version even has 'the childlike', which might be mistaken as recommending a childish simplicity. We shouldn't let this language turn us off. It is a change of attitude that is called for, if we want to get the revelation that is offered. It certainly does not mean that we should stay in ignorance or childishness instead of growing up, getting educated and learning as much as we can through reading, listening, study and reflection.
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Part B contains the core of the Christian revelation. While similar expressions occur throughout John's gospel (Jn 3:35; 10:15.), this is the only place such a statement is found in the synoptics.
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.
'Knowing' represents a mode of being intimate, being at one. Jesus claims to be at one with the Father in a way that no-one else is, and his role is to reveal the Father to those he chooses, his friends.
Some of us might want to stand tall in our modern scientific pose and look things squarely in the face, but we would get stumped at this point because, on the face of it, this is what the gospel says. The community in which Matthew's gospel was accepted as the living tradition saw that Jeshua spoke of himself as having a unique relationship with the Father, with the role of revealing the Father to those he chooses.
I wonder how it felt for him to say that, him the Human One who seemed so determined to insist that he was one of us, 'son of man', born into this world just like us. It is as though the revelation came to him as he spoke, and the words came through in spite of their obvious improbability.
At other times when he had said lesser things the gospels tell of people scoffing openly at such pretentious claims. Here there is nothing of that kind, which may indicate these lines have been inserted into the narrative to express what the community had come to understand and believe rather than something Jeshua had actually said in a particular conversation with his disciples. They may have been a liturgical text already in common use. Link http://liturgy.slu.edu/14OrdA070614/theword_indepth.html Whichever way you see it, this is what the gospel says of Jesus.
*****
Part C opens with an invitation that is proper to Wisdom: 'Come to me.' It echoes the wisdom writings of Ben Sirach: 'Come aside to me, you untutored, and take up lodging in the house of instruction.' (Sir 51:23).
If our minds are contaminated with too much outdated piety and unprocessed theological imagery we might be off on the wrong foot in this part. It is essential that we avoid a merely emotional or sentimental reading of what follows.
Those who labour are not just the weary workers and all the downtrodden; in first place are those working hard to gain wisdom who feel they are making little progress. It is presupposed that the purpose of life is to learn wisdom, i.e., how to live in truth rather than how to live in ease. How to become a whole person rather than just a successful one in this human race for riches and power.
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.
Those who labour and are burdened, confused and discouraged after trying for years 'to work it all out', are invited by Wisdom to come to this Human One, this Son of Man, this Jeshua from Nazareth, for he is a gentle teacher. Being humble himself he knows how to instruct in a way that does not crush the human spirit or imprison the human mind. The rest that he will give is that inner quietness of spirit which may properly be called peace.
To learn from him how to wear the yoke of discipline required for advancing in wisdom we need to imitate his submission to his Abba / Father. To 'reality', if you like! The lesson for us must be in this: by reflecting on his attitude to life and the way he managed crises and coped with troubling people, we may discover his secret for keeping his soul in peace. If we want to know God the way Jeshua knew him, we will learn to trust him completely as a loving, caring dad, a gentle one who does not bully his child in anger or threaten arbitrary punishments on his infant children. In the end this comes to mean that we no longer argue with him - or with our fate. We might even overcome the fear that would make us turn and run - as Jeshua did on that last night when through long hours in prayer he said: 'Your will be done.'
It is strange and unfortunate that popular piety over some 400 years or more has been expressed in devotions to a gentle caring Jesus whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, inviting people to pray for an easier life or a reduction of pain. Strange, because before us always stands the portrayal of his burden, the cross he carried and himself nailed to it. Humanly, as he said elsewhere, 'if anyone would follow me he will have to take up his own cross.' It is no easy yoke, no light burden. Religion will not make life easier. But wisdom might make it survivable, and learning wisdom as we go along is the supreme achievement that will bring us peace, even if we cannot pacify the world just yet.
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Additional notes
A final word about comfort: I have just read Michael Parer's account of his journey into the priesthood, and out again after just ten years. Towards the end he was debating in his mind whether he has the right to leave his ministry, and he writes: "To give up my parish and my people was bitter... I acknowledged the need to bring happiness to ordinary people, to families and old people in their homes..." (Dreamer by Day, Michael S Parer, Angus and Robertson 1971. p. 129)
In a book written with "ruthless honesty", this struck me as odd. I had never imagined the role of a priest, or the church for that matter, was to bring"happiness" to people. (I should say that Michael's book was written only three years after he left the priesthood, and he may see things very differently now. Also, I am only using this to illustrate my point today, not to criticise the book or its author.) I make the point because I suspect that many people have expected happiness from religion, and when it has failed to deliver happiness they have given it up. There may be other words that could stand for "happiness", even the old phrase "the comforts of religion". Mostly the idea seems to refer to "feeling good" whether in conscience (hence regular confession to clear feelings of guilt and fear), or in an emotion that might be called "devotion" or "being devout". How to sort this out?
Like our experience of love, our journey of "faith" moves along a continuum from 'very emotional' towards something that sits deeper within the person and is stronger and purer. When we were young we could 'fall in love', an experience that might be entirely fake, being entirely one-sided - having a crush on someone. Love must be mutual. Some married couples are still deeply in love after a life-time together, but in old age they experience their love in a very different way. The emotional drive is of another order. No longer reaching out as with a compulsion to possess, they know now that they know each other through and through. Rather than saying they are terribly happy in their love, they might be more inclined to say they are deeply contented and grateful to be together enjoying one another.
So we grow through life in faith relationship with God in Jesus the Human One, the Anointed One. When we were young we may have dreamed of walking beside him; we may even have wanted to dress as he did and wear sandals, or a cross around our neck. We may have found happiness in our love for Jesus. But wisdom comes with the years, and teaches us to understand the shift from the emotional to something deeper. I center my self on the god whom I call Father, with the meaning Jesus gave to "Abba", and every day I work my way towards a wider understanding of it all, of life, the troubled human world, the magnificent cosmos, the passing of time. Formulas of words, sacraments and celebrations, provide glimpses into the vast mystery and I am excited by these, almost enough to counter the revolting shame and anger and fear that comes when I look at the awful things we do to one another. I have done awful things too. Almost enough - but not ever quite enough is my experience of this loving Abba to outweigh the ugly side of life that mocks the very thought of peace.
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John Pilch says that in the Mediterranean culture, this would be about the patron who adopts someone and treats them as one of the family.http://liturgy.slu.edu/14OrdA070614/theword_cultural.html Jesus is saying, then, that he is the natural son who has access to the father by right, and can mediate that family knowledge to the adopted ones.