14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Matthew 11: 25-30

25 At that time Jesus exclaimed, I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.

26 Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.

27 Everything has been entrusted to me by the Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.

29 Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Meditation

Today's passage is best understood as a wonderful summary of the "Little Way" of St Therese of Lisieux. For those who are acquainted with the spiritual teaching of the Saint, it is an opportunity to celebrate her and all she has meant to the Church and to the world of our time.

Like all bible passages, this one teaches by way of story. It records a moment of intense emotion in the life of Jesus, when he "exclaims" i.e. utters a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving.

The experience was particular to Jesus but as always with lectio divina we are invited to enter into it, recognising with gratitude that we and great people who have touched our lives have lived similar moments. They have been wisdom moments", i.e. taught us some important lessons about human living.

Jesus reflects on three aspects of his life:

verses 25 and 26, the learned and the clever did not understand him but "mere children" did;

verse 27, his relationship with his heavenly father;

verses 28 to 30, his ministry to those who are overburdened by the religion of his time.

We read the passage as one continuous flow, interpreting each section in the light of the other two.

Verses 25 and 26. The Jewish community which Jesus ministered to was divided into two categories, (a) those who knew and practiced the law and (b) those who did neither.

Jesus experiences that those barriers are of no consequence - the experts in the law didn't understand him whereas the others did - and this moves him very deeply. Note the adjective "mere" - they were considered of no consequence.

Jesus' overall response is positive; he is not concerned with those who don't understand, his entire focus is on the wisdom of the little ones. He is like Mary in the Magnificat celebrating the "lowly lifted up" rather than rejoicing at "the mighty cast down".

We too have had moments when we became aware of the greatness of those we had previously looked down:

Men and women who never darken the doors of a church turned out to be "holy" people.

Those with little formal education shared insights which we had never thought of.

The children of dysfunctional families became wonderful parents.

We remember our feelings then - how wrong we were! what good news that we were wrong!

The "mere children" need not be people. We can interpret them of aspects of ourselves that we tend to disown - our weak points, failures, jealousies, feelings of insecurity. One day we realise that in order to see reality more clearly we must see the world with the eyes of a child and renounce our need/desire to find security in power or status - being "learned and clever.

We celebrate moments when perhaps for the first time we appreciated:

the beauty of nature

the greatness of others

the potential in a community.

The passage is a lived experience of Jesus' teaching that unless we are converted and become like little children we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

In verse 27 Jesus remembers that he himself was a "mere child" in the presence of his heavenly Father.

The passage is recognised to be difficult. Many scholars read it as a testimony to Jesus' unique relationship with God the Father - in parallel with similar testimonies in St John's Gospel. It therefore becomes a "proof text" that he was truly God.

But the "law" of lectio divina that I mentioned above must apply to this verse in particular - the only way to understand a bible passage is from personal experience. Lectio reminds us that by the incarnation Jesus does not merely reveal God, he reveals us to ourselves. He invites to share his unique experience, even though on a lower level.

Furthermore we approach the passage "from below" remembering our deep human relationships, e.g. with a spouse, a colleague, a "soul friend"; the relationship then becomes a "parable" of our relationship with God.

The passage looks at two aspects of Jesus' relationship with the Father,

trust in 27a

"knowing" in 27b.

27a tells us that for Jesus (and for us), "everything" in the relationship is a gift, temporarily "entrusted to us" by a loving Father. This is how "mere children" relate with adults.

"Know" in 27b has the biblical meaning of "have a very intimate relationship" (in the bible "know" often means "have sexual intercourse with").

"No one knows except ." is also a biblical way of speaking. It indicates the intensity of the relationship, "I know you in way that no one in the world does". It is like the passages which speak of Israel as God's "only" or "first- begotten" son which mean, "my love you is very special". Parents will understand this; they know about loving each of their children as an "only child".

27c, adds that Jesus has shared with others his intimacy with the Father. The verse is saying two things

- His ministry (like ours) consists in inititating people into intimacy with God

He "chooses", in the sense that he puts the stamp of his freedom on the relationship he establishes: "life (the Lord) sent you on my path and I have turned what was a chance meeting into a personal choice."

Verses 28 to 30 draw the conclusion from the first two sections: because has Jesus experienced life as a gift, his followers are truly free.

In the time of Jesus (as in our time) religion had become a matter of keeping commandments; people experienced it as "labour"; they felt "overburdened" by it. Jesus changed that; he made religion an experience of freedom. He challenged his followers to reach beyond their narrow concerns but they experienced this "yoke" as "easy" and this "burden" as "light". We celebrate people who did that for us.

We interpret "gentle and humble of heart" in the light of the two previous sections. It means being able to accept weakness (being mere children) in the presence of God. Our interpetation will be based on personal experience - we think of people who made life's challenges easy to bear and recognise how they were gentle and humble of heart.

We can interpret the passage as a celebration of the teaching method of the great Brasilian education, Paulo Freire, as taught in his famous work Pedagogy of the Oppressed. We can identify the three stages of the passage, starting with the third:

teaching must not be a "burdensome" transferring of facts (the "banking method" of education) but an initiation to freedom;

for true teachers knowledge is a sacred trust they grow into, side by side with their students;

Prayer 

Heavenly Father, Lord of heaven and earth, we thank you that you hidden things from the learned and the clever and revealed them to mere children, yes Father, that is what it has pleased you to do.

Lord, we always tend to form groups where we feel superior to others and listen only to one another as a Church and as groups within the Church; within ethnic groups and social classes; within our families and communities.

We thank you for those precious moments when you break down the barriers we have set up, surprising us by hiding things from us and revealing them to those we considered mere children: someone we thought a sinner taught us true loyalty or love; a child we looked on as inferior said a word that brought peace to our family; young people accomplished something we adults had not been able; a group we had written off as unemployable organized themselves into a co-op.

At that moment you were calling us to poverty of spirit whereby we recognize you as Lord of heaven and earth. Lord, we pray that our Church may be a presence of Jesus in our country: always on the lookout for those who are looked down upon as mere children; grateful when you reveal things to them that have been hidden from the learned and the clever and proclaiming your love to the world.

Lord, we thank you for moments of intimacy and sharing, when friends opened themselves to us in trust, letting us know them as no one knew them, and we felt known as we had never been known, and there was no worry about our trust being betrayed. These were truly sacred moments when we experienced your love and your trust.

We pray today for families, that they may be living experiences of your Holy Trinity, with trust between parents and children, parents letting themselves be known by their children and children letting themselves be known by their parents, and children free to invite whoever they like into that place of trust.

Lord, there are people in our society who are overburdened: society makes them feel responsible for the country; their sins appear more shameful than the sins of more respectable people; they are caught in a trap of poverty and lack the energy to get out. We pray that as a Church we may not add to their burdens.

Help us on the contrary to come to them like Jesus, with respect and trust and in a spirit of dialogue; with humility and gentleness of heart, so that they may feel themselves understood and so find rest for their souls. Lord, we pray today for those who feel called to undertake some burden: to accept death or illness; to forgive an enemy; to let a loved one go; to involve themselves in a struggle for justice.

Help them to trust you, that you know how they labour and are overburdened, that you are gentle and humble of heart, and they will find the yoke easy and the burden light.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for moments of deep prayer when we experience that everything is your gift entrusted to us, other misunderstand us but we feel you understand, and we say no one knows us except you, we feel so close to you, we can say no one knows you except us so close to those we minister to, we can say those whom we have chosen to reveal you to also know you.

Lord religion often becomes a matter of keeping commandments, a heavy burden to bear. We thank you for sending us teachers like Jesus so gentle and humble in heart that we find rest for our souls, they lay a yoke on us but it is easy, they ask us to bear a burden but it is light. Lord we thank you for the gift of St Therese of Lisieux.

Truly you revealed things this mere child which you hid from the learned and the clever among her contemporaries Yes Father that is what it pleased you to do, she knew that whatever she had was entrusted to her by you, she felt herself known by you in a way that no one else knew her she knew you as no one else knew you, and those to whom she taught her Little Way, she called to her all who felt religions as a labour and a burden and she gave them rest, we have learnt humility and gentleness of heart from her and we found rest for her souls, we found her yoke easy and her burden light.