“You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and have revealed them to little ones…”
“Take up my yoke and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart…” Matthew 11, 25-30
For an understanding of both the significance and meaning of the gospel-reading for this fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time an appreciation of context is most important. Matthew has placed Jesus’ description of his way of praying immediately after his sharp criticism of those who had complained about John the Baptist for being too austere and about himself for partying too much and failing to give any witness to austerity. He followed up immediately with a criticism of the people of the towns in which he had recently worked most of his miracles. As far as he was concerned, their insensitivity to his actions and his call for a change of heart beggared belief.
He proceeded to comment on how his message of God’s love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness had found a receptive audience in the ordinary, unsophisticated, uneducated and simple people whom he had encountered. That led him to remark on how God can work for good in unexpected and surprising ways, and it was an insight into how he went about his own prayer, reflecting on God’s presence and action in his own day-to-day activities and his encounters with ordinary people and even his personal struggles with being dismissed and rejected. In turn, that led him to remind those around him that they, too, would encounter God in similar circumstances.
Short though this gospel-reading is, implicit in it is a reminder to us all that Jesus experienced all the limitations of being fully human. He had to discover how God was working in and through the events that were part and parcel of his daily life. That’s the kind of challenge we all face. While we know in theory that God is revealed to us each day in the people we encounter by both plan and accident, it takes time, openness and sensitivity to grow into that awareness. In today’s gospel-reading, we get an insight from Jesus of his coming to that awareness. In a short sentence that we can easily miss, he simply says that the response he received from the ordinary, simple people was an expression of God’s providence. Jesus acknowledged that when he commented: “Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.” (Matthew 11: 26) – a paraphrase of “Thy will be done” from the prayer he had taught his disciples. Therein is a lesson for each of us. We are meant to discover something of God in the people we encounter each day. Our encounters with them constitute a stimulus for the development of our prayer, of our growing relationship with God. Our listening to them is a step in our process of discerning God’s will.
In urging those around him to take on his yoke, he was simply inviting them to imitate him in recognising that God is to be found in the ordinary stuff and relationships of daily-life. The word “yoke” here is not another word for burden but a reference to how we deal with whatever comes our way each day. While a yoke is often seen as a burden, it is technically a harness placed on the necks of a team of oxen to keep them heading in the same direction. Jesus was effectively telling those to whom he was speaking that his attitude of meekness and humbleness of heart is what leads him towards God. If we, his modern-day audience, imitate him, allowing ourselves to be guided and directed by meekness and humbleness of heart, we will be at peace with God, with one another and with ourselves. Genuine disciples of Jesus will work to adopt his attitudes and his dispositions. That does not mean that we will be free from feeling the full range of human emotions but it does mean that we will grow to be less likely to be controlled by them. In the lead-up to today’s gospel-reading, Matthew had described Jesus as feeling slighted and rebuffed by people who had witnessed his miracles but were reluctant to accept his message. He had expected a more sensitive and sympathetic response to the good news he was proclaiming. Still, he was able to set aside his feelings of hurt and recognise that God’s goodness was reflected in the little ones who had responded positively to him. As a result he was able to launch into the section of Matthew’s Gospel which we hear today with a prayer of gratitude to God: “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. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.” (Matthew 11: 25-26)
At the close of each day, when we pause to pray and reflect, are we able to express gratitude for God’s presence to us in the events and personal encounters that have constituted the fabric of that same day?