Meek and Humble of Heart: Reflections on the Readings for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

If you haven’t already read the readings you can find them here.

Zechariah 9:9-10
Psalm 145
Romans 8:9, 11-13
Matthew 11:25-30

There are those who try to argue that Jesus never said He was God. But, as Brant Pitre writes, “Jesus did claim to be God—but in a very Jewish way.” (The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ). The pharisees and scribes saw this and consequently threatened to stone Jesus on several occasions.  Anyone who denies Jesus’ declaration of divinity is reading Scripture with blinders on as He said it many times and in many ways.

The excerpt from Zechariah is an example of this. If we look at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of what we now refer to as Holy Week we see Jesus, the “just savior,” “meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” (See Matthew 21:1-5) This is not just an example of Christ’s humility, riding on the foal of an ass rather than on a magnificent stallion, but also a fulfillment of the many prophecies in the Old Testament that point so clearly to Jesus and His bringing us salvation. Christ means Messiah, Savior. It is also Jesus declaring His identity in a way that the scribes and pharisees recognized.

And when the prophet says, “His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth,” He’s saying that the Lord shall rule over all of the earth. This is what shall bring peace to all the nations. Without Christ there is no peace. In the meantime, Jesus warned us that there would be division and trials that would challenge us, but “He who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13).

But this won’t happen all at once. In the responsorial psalm we hear, “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.” God’s time is not our time. The trials He sends us are an opportunity, not only to pick up our crosses and follow His Son, but also, as St. Peter tells us, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7)

And so, as the psalmist says, “The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” Because of this, we should “praise your name for ever, my king and my God.”

Curiously the reading from Romans selected for today leaves out a verse, “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” This verse alludes to the fact that we must die to ourselves and our sinfulness, which then St. Paul expands with the rest of the selection. This is summed up in the last line of this reading, “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” And St. Paul tells us that is the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us that will release us from our debt to sinfulness, thus preparing us for our resurrection.

We get more insight into how to make this happen in the reading from the gospel of Matthew. “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.” This is pointing to how our egos get in the way of hearing and responding to Jesus’ teaching. As we get older, we think we get wiser and we lose the innocence of the little ones. Thus we have a tendency to put ourselves before the Word of God and become resistant to His message. That message might cause us to change, and change is difficult, especially as we get older and set in our ways.

But change is the core of Jesus’ message. He began His ministry with the words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) We continually see the phrase, “All are welcome,” which is the beginning of Jesus’ message. Pope Francis used the phrase, “todos, todos, todos” (all, all, all) but in the process suppressed the real message, that we are called to change. Bishop Sheen reflected this in his comment about the Wise Men at the Nativity, “Of course, the wise men went home by a different route; no one meets Christ and remains the same.” If you are not changing, you haven’t fully met Christ.

If we’re not willing to change, we won’t have any impact on the world, which we are called to change. Instead we end up letting the world change us. “If we’re satisfied with ourselves and our world as it is, we won’t change it for the better.” Dr. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Cycle C.” Jesus called us out of the world in order that we can change the world. God operates outside of space and time and so we must be in the world and not of the world in order to have an impact on the world.

Although most aren’t listening (especially those who leave early), we get told this at the conclusion of every Mass. Our sending isn’t merely saying “Hey, we’re done here, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” (Actually, we could stay as Jesus is still present in the Tabernacle.) Just as Jesus sent the apostles at the Ascension, we have a mission. We are being sent with a purpose. Thus, some of the alternate concluding statements beyond the very basic, “Go, the Mass is ended,” include such statements as “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life;” or “Go and announce the gospel of the Lord.”

We “announce the Gospel of the Lord” by living the gospel of the Lord. It’s not just for an hour on Sunday. This is what Jesus means by telling us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” He’s calling us to action. Love is active, not passive, and love is an act of the will. Too often we think of it as an emotion, but that dilutes it and is not the true meaning. St. Thomas Aquinas said, “To love is to will the good of another.” (CCC 1766). It means putting others before ourselves. Yes, that may mean sacrifice at times, but there is no love without sacrifice and no sacrifice without love. If you are not willing to sacrifice, you don’t know how to love. As Jesus said, “Pick up you Cross and follow me!”