Our Savior is just and meek... His rule is one of peace
Reflections on the readings for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (July 5, 2020): ZEC 9:9-10; PS 145:1-2,8-9,10-11,13-14; ROM 8:9,11-13; MT 11:25-30
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Only by listening to and following Him can we gain any understanding of the Lord of heaven and earth.
The readings for today, particularly Zechariah and the Gospel according to St. Matthew, address the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. Jesus wants people listening to Him to understand the profound intimacy that they share. “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” (Matthew 11:27). More than that, Christ wants them to see that only He can lead all people, not only Jews, but also all nations to the ends of the earth. Only by listening to and following Him can we gain any understanding of the Lord of heaven and earth.
Jesus wants us to realize that He is making Himself – and therefore the Father – known to all who are open to Him, to pay humble attention to Him. The wise and learned people that He mentions cannot grasp His message because they assume that they are wise and learned. These include the religious leaders of His day who make the rules and who make sure everyone else knows that they are powerful. Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and others in authority preferred painstaking interpretations of the Jewish law that were often difficult for average people to follow. They put themselves ahead of those whose welfare should have been their concern and, in fact, before God Himself. In this passage from Matthew, Jesus lets the disciples and all the crowds who are willing to hear Him know that He is in truth, Divine. And only through Him can any person draw closer to the Father. Christ plainly wants to reveal the Father to His children. However, then and now, people must acknowledge our personal limitations and allow our Redeemer to teach us, to transform us, to show us the way to the Kingdom of God.
