My reflection on this week’s readings began with the last three minutes of last Sunday’s homily by Bishop Robert Barron. (Hear it here) He was talking about what “those who lose their life will find it” means. This is part of the text:
“’The one who willingly bears the burdens of others out of love will find his life.’ That’s a formula. Jesus asks us to love Jesus more than father or mother or child or our very life. Then we are to do what he did: bear people’s burdens. Then, you will actually find your life.
Jesus goes on to say, ‘Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.’ That is the whole Gospel in a nutshell.
When we love Jesus above all, when we do what he did, we bear other people’s burdens, we take up the cross every day, we become the most effective ambassadors possible for Christ.
How are people drawn into this dynamic? In his own day, it was Jesus, drawing people in, but now he uses people like us ( though we are unworthy vessels). He uses us. If someone sees you bearing the burdens of another, taking up your cross willingly, loving Jesus above your own life, your children, your parents, he will receive Christ through you. And in receiving Christ, he will receive the Father.
Above all, you propagate Christ by being Christ, by being conformed to him, loving him above everything in the world, and you become thereby an icon of Christ, an ambassador of Christ, and you draw people into the Divine Love. The Father sent the Son. The Son sends us. And when people see us as an image of the Son, they are drawn back to the Son and therefore to the Father.
There it is…Matthew Chapter 10, the whole spiritual life with its relentless demands and liberating power. There you find it. Unless you love me more than your mother, your father, your son, your daughter, your very life, you’re not worthy of me. As far as I’m concerned, everything else in Christianity is a footnote to that.”
Matthew 11:25-30
I had already read ahead on today’s readings when I heard Bishop Barron’s homily. At first reading, I could see no links of the readings with each other or much to focus on. After hearing that homily, I went back to the readings. I read with new eyes:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
That is a verse I have always loved. I have always read it as Jesus telling me to come lean on him. That still is a meaning I value, but, now I see it as Jesus inviting others to come to him by coming to me (and you) and leaning on us—as we become Jesus.
Wow!
In the verses of Matthew 11 before today’s reading, messengers come from John the Baptist and ask, “Are you the one who is to come?” Jesus’ response is not “yes,” but rather that he is doing the good promised by Isaiah and other prophets when the Messiah comes: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5)
What is new and exhilarating to think about is that by this time, not only is Jesus fulfilling what the prophets predicted, BUT SO ARE HIS DISCIPLES. They are out and about. As I pray, I see Jesus having a wonderful “aha” moment. It is as if Jesus “gets the big picture” of what is happening. The Kingdom of God is coming! So he pours out his gratitude: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
I paused at the word “infants.” Infants? Well, infants in going out and doing ministry! Absolute infants in that very ordinary people who are not prophets are curing the sick, casting out demons, and healing the blind, lame, and deaf.
Nonetheless, the word “infants” surprised me. I looked up the Greek. The Greek word is written as nepios. It means young child or a simple-minded or immature person. Is Jesus marveling because simple, poor people are responding to his Good News message or because his often simple-minded disciples are able to work miracles like him? Or is it because the prophets’ predictions are coming true?
Good questions to save for heaven when we can find out answers! But can you feel Jesus’ joy? Can you catch the joy for who we are to be today?
Zechariah 9:9-10
Zechariah was a prophet at the time of the return to Jerusalem from Babylon. Here he is trying to encourage a disheartened and overwhelmed people to do the work to rebuild the city and the temple.
In this reading, these are the words that jump out: “See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass…he shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; the warrior’s bow shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.”
The question I ask is this: when we focus our attention on loving Jesus first and most, then willingly take up the cross of bearing one another’s burdens, as Bishop Barron suggested last week, is it true that King Jesus and his Kingdom come? That seems to be true.
Then the thought follows: In the highly polarized church and world we live in, do (or would) arguments again become respectful if we focused on how we can bear one another’s burdens and love Jesus most? When we bring people to Jesus because they see our fidelity, sacrifice, and love?
Then, a troubling question: has Satan found a way to stop so many good people by having them focus on their differences in beliefs, rather than on the good of being Christ in the world? Has he sown choking briars in the rich soil of modern communication, levels of education, and capacity to live a flourishing life?
Romans 8:9, 11-13
Again this week, St. Paul reminds us of a guiding Truth: “You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Paul adds the Holy Spirit to the Father and Son of the other two readings. It would be the Holy Spirit living in us that would enable us to be Christ. The alternative is severe: “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.”
Don’t the deeds of the body include a wide variety of sins, from sex outside of “between two married people who are open to new life” to social class prestige that rests on the backs of the poor? Don’t deeds of the flesh include both personal and social sin? Are we not ALL into deeds of the flesh when we spend time attacking those who think differently, omitting bearing the burdens of others?
Applications and Prayer
This disturbs and yet enthuses me. Early in the week I rewrote my morning prayer to ask God to help me bring disturbing, judgmental thoughts to him, even if I’m ashamed of them. I also made clearer a desire to carry other people’s burdens. The week has been an intense one. God has been answering my prayer. Now on Saturday morning, I’m exhausted–yet exhilarated, too.
Now, in spite of my years of morning offerings, there is a question in my mind: Do I truly love God more than anyone or anything? If not, how do I get there? Dare I add the grace for that to my every morning prayer?
Sunday points to ponder!
Lead me, guide me, Lord!
