“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Sunday, 9th July 2017.
Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Zech 9:9-10;
Ps 144:1-2, 8-11, 13-14;
Rom 8:9, 11-13;
Mt 11: 25-30.
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO THE POOR
The Jewish society often discussed the issue on who would be the greatest, to whom greater honor belonged. To the God of Israel, who could not be outdone by eastern deities, Greek and Egyptian, the title “great” was inevitably given. For this reason Solomon proclaimed: “Yahweh is greater than all the gods” (Ex 18:11) and Moses assured the Israelites: “Yahweh is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is the great God, the strong and terrible God” (Dt 10:17). In the last centuries before Christ, the statements about the greatness of God had multiplied dramatically. He was “the most high God, the great” (Est 8:12). But Jesus appeared, in all his grandeur: a weak, poor, defenseless child “wrapped in swaddling clothes” by a sweet and caring young mother. From that day all the criteria of greatness have been turned upside down. The very existence of the human beings is to seek the face of God. Only the man who is humble and simple can see the face of God. All the three readings of the day tell us that God reveals himself to the poor and simple. One requires a heart and mind of a child to seek the face of God.
In the first reading Prophet Zechariah announces a Messiah who is poor and humble. It is a time when Israel was no longer an independent country, nor was it waging war on anybody. It was a country colonized, exploited and oppressed by foreign powers. The people of God were expecting a messiah who would redeem them from this misery. But Zechariah overturns the concept of kingship. The king is not the one who is served but one who puts others at the center of his attention. The weak are not to be submissive to him; he puts himself at their service. His strength is what people considered weakness. Jesus will fulfill to the letter this prophecy when he would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. With this gesture he will show that he is the peace-loving king announced by Zechariah.
In the second reading, St Paul writing to Romans echoes the attitude and disposition one requires to receive God’s Spirit. He says the Spirit can only be received by the poor, by those who are humble heart. The Apostle mentions the moral consequences that arise from the new situation entered into by the baptized. He has to do works that are in tune with the life of God, with the impulses of the Spirit. If he continues to “live according to the flesh” he makes choices of death.
The Gospel begins with Jesus’ exclamation: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise you because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to simple people” The followers of Jesus were poor fishermen of Galilee, tax collectors, wayward people, publicans, sinners, prostitutes and those who are cast out from the society. Such were the people who received the messiah and not the learned and rich. It was too difficult for the Pharisees and the scribes to accept Jesus as messiah. In fact they detested him and wanted to do away with him. It is the poor who welcomed Jesus and listened to him. They had the mind of children to grasp the wisdom of the God and not the people who had the wisdom of the world. They hungered and thirsted for righteousness, waiting for the Lord to intervene to raise their heads and fill them with joy.
The deeply rooted Jewish conviction was that God is friend only of the good and righteous. Jesus instead goes to recover those that we throw in the trash. He prefers those who are despised and those who are not paid attention to by anyone, the public sinners (Mt 11:19) and prostitutes (Mt 21:31) because they are the most in need of his love. The rich, the satiated, those who are proud of their knowledge do not need Him. They will also reach salvation, of course, but only when they make themselves “small ones.” For Jesus tells: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” The verb ‘to know’ in the Bible does not mean having met or contacted a person a few times, but means “to have had a profound experience of the person.” It is used generally to indicate the intimate relationship that exists between husband and wife (cf. Lk 1:34). A full knowledge of the Father is possible only to the Son. However, he may communicate this experience to anyone he wants. Who will have the right disposition to accept his revelation? The small ones, of course. The scribes, rabbis, those who are educated in every detail of the law, are convinced that they have the full knowledge of God. They maintain they know how to discern what is good. They present themselves as guides for the blind, as light to those who are in darkness, as educators of the ignorant, as masters of the simple ones (Rom 2:18-20). As long as they do not give up their attitude of being “wise” and “intelligent” people, they preclude the true and rewarding experience of God’s love.
The Scribes and Pharisees had structured a very complicated religion, made up of minute rules, prescriptions impossible to observe. They loaded the shoulders of ignorant people “unbearable burdens that they do not even move a finger to help them” (Lk 11:46). For this reason, the poor not only felt themselves wretched in this world, but also rejected by God and excluded from the world to come. To these poor, lost and disoriented, Jesus addressed the invitation to be free from fear and distressing religion instilled in them. He recommends: Accept my law, the new one that is summed up in a single commandment: love of brothers/sisters. His yoke is sweet. First of all because it is his: not in the sense that he imposed it, but because he carried it first. His yoke is sweet because only those who accept the wisdom of the beatitudes can experience the joy and peace. Finally, He invites: “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” Jesus is presented as meek and humble of heart. These are the terms that we find in the Beatitudes. They do not indicate the timid, the meek, the quiet, but those who are poor and oppressed, those who, while suffering injustice, do not resort to violence.
The passage of today’s Gospel is a reason for both personal and community reflection. Seek to grow in humility so as to allow the Lord to reveal the simple yet profound truths He desires to reveal. Strive to be childlike in God’s eyes and you will become wiser and more learned than you could ever become on your own.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to have a simple and childlike faith in You and, through this simple faith, come to know the beautiful mysteries You desire to reveal to me. Give me wisdom and knowledge, dear Lord, beyond what I could ever obtain by myself. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.