Matthew 11:25-30

 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini

Greetings to all. 

To understand the prayer that Jesus raised to the Father and that is related to today's Gospel passage, we must contextualize it at the moment that Jesus was going through during his public life, a challenging time in which things were going bad for him, with hostility and abandonment; it was one of those moments that we also go through when things take a bad turn, and we can't explain why certain things happen, we need to orient ourselves and know what decisions to take. 

What was happening? The scribes and the Pharisees were against him from the beginning because they immediately realized they were confronted with a dangerous innovator who challenged all their traditions, mainly because he preached a God who condemned no one and loves everyone unconditionally. Then, with his person, he perfectly reproduced this image of a God who is good and only good to all. Jesus was with the poor, with the tax collectors, with sinners; he caressed the lepers, and he was with the excluded. 

The scribes of the synagogues taught something else: that God only loved the good, not the bad; the bad he kept away; he didn't want them near him. Of course, they could not but look at this young rabbi from Nazareth with hostility and had continual contentious confrontations with him. At this time, these hostilities were accentuated. Unlike the scribes, in the simple town of Capernaum, the people welcomed Jesus enthusiastically at the beginning. 

Why did even the simple people begin to abandon him? The reason is simple: they had started to understand what Jesus was asking of them and what he was proposing. They had approached him to ask him for favors, prodigies, in short, always just to obtain something from him. Instead, Jesus asked them to be converted, that is, to learn to give. He taught 'to give,' and they understood 'to have.' He taught that blessed are those who give everything, those who become poor, and they, on the other hand, dreamed of becoming rich. The apostles also cultivated these life projects. When people understood that he proposed new greatness, not the greatness of those who command and are served, but the greatness of those who serve, it is no wonder that simple people began to like this masterless and less. 

The evangelist Matthew dedicates two chapters of his Gospel to relate what happened in this crisis, chapters 11 and 12. Chapter 11 introduces us to the first person who entered a crisis, one we would not have expected: John the Baptist. He had been imprisoned in Machaerus, and he was well treated by King Herod Antipas because he esteemed him, and the Baptist could receive the visits of his disciples and be kept informed of what Jesus preached and did. 

But the Baptist had predicted that the Messiah would intervene forcefully to separate the chaff from the wheat and burn the chaff in an unquenchable fire. Then he said that he would wield the axe to cut the roots of unproductive trees, and now, instead, comes to know that Jesus hung out with sinners; instead of burning that chaff, which is wicked, he was with them. That is why one day, the Baptist sent a delegation to ask him: 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for someone else to do what I have said should be done?' 

All that the Baptist had said was true, but he had misunderstood; the straw was not the people, as he pretended, but the evil present in each person, and the trees to be cut down were not the people who were all loved by God, they are all sons and daughters of God and, therefore, in no way can they be thrown into the fire. The evil roots present in every person are the destructive impulses that block the lifeblood and prevent them from bearing fruit; it is these roots that the Messiah would have cut with his axe, which is his Gospel, his word, and burn them in his fire. And God knows only one fire, the fire of love and his Spirit; this Spirit cuts the roots of evil in each person's heart. If anyone speaks of yet another fire, do not listen to them because it is blasphemy... the fire into which God would send his sons and daughters is great blasphemy. 

Matthew tells us of a painful exclamation of Jesus in this challenging moment, an exclamation toward the cities in which he had preached more than anywhere else. At a certain point, he said, "Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Capernaum, woe to you, Bethsaida.” Let us be careful with this 'woe' because it does not translate the sense of the expression used by Jesus. His cry is 'hoi,’ a cry of pain, a funeral wail. 

‘Hoi! What are they doing?’ He feels a cry of pain in his heart for these cities' choice; they did not welcome the kingdom of God. This is the harrowing moment when Jesus begins to pray. And let us also add that not only the people but also his relatives had misunderstood what he was proposing to them. In fact, at one point, they came from Nazareth to look for him because they said he had gone mad. This is when Jesus says, 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? They all accept the proposal of life that I make and put it into practice.' 

In this climate of response, it is a difficult moment when Jesus raises his prayer to the heavenly Father. Let us listen to how this prayer begins: 

"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth!" 

This is the problematic moment lived by Jesus in Capernaum, and if we reflect a little, we immediately realize that it is not very different from what we live in today. There were many abandonments in Capernaum, and today, there are many in our Christian communities. And the reasons for these abandonments are not different from those of the people of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida. They were looking for Jesus to obtain prodigies and healings, and this was also what happened to many Christians who prayed and approached Jesus to obtain healings, favors, miracles; and when these things started to be obtained from science and technology, they no longer felt the need for Jesus; they sought from him what he never promised. 

He promised his light, his Spirit, not that he would substitute what we must do. Today, we see that so many sisters and brothers, especially young people, are leaving our communities, religious practice is diminishing, and we see that in our society, the proposals for life choices and moral options make less and less reference to the Gospel. The criteria that are in vogue are others. We are also aware of what is happening in many European countries, where many churches are being transformed into museums, gyms, supermarkets, or simply closed. Then there are the secularists who make us angry because they rejoice in this situation and say that Christianity is in decline, that the Church is an institution that should resign itself to disappear because it has had its day. 

How do we behave when faced with a situation similar to the one that Jesus lived in? Very differently from Jesus. Let's think about whether we pay attention to the speeches we hear from our brothers of faith who say that we are becoming more and more insignificant in our society, that it is useless to preach the Gospel because nobody listens to us anymore, and that is why they lower their arms, sadden themselves, bow their heads and resign themselves. Then, it is time to ask ourselves how Jesus lived that difficult moment. And how he lived it differently from us. That's the point; the reason is that he prayed, and we don't pray. Let's not confuse prayer with the repetition of formulas. To pray means to tune in to God's thoughts, and we must listen to his word to see reality as he sees it. 

That is what Jesus did. He was always in tune with the heavenly Father's thoughts and heart. Only if one prays can one see things in the right way. There is pain, and pain can be a sign of approaching death, but it can also signify a life about to be born. If we pray, we will see our situation not as the proximity of death but as the opportune moment of a new birth, of the blossoming of a more beautiful, more evangelical church. Even Jesus was tempted to give up, but he prayed and had the light to see how the heavenly Father inspired him. 

And what did he exclaim? "I give praise to you, Father." This is when Jesus would say, 'I don't understand anything anymore... I wonder if the Lord is with me...’ No, Jesus praises the Father; he understood in prayer that what was taking place was part of God's plan, and he proclaimed with joy that the Father's plan is beautiful; it is positive, even though he is going through these dark moments. His human gaze made him see failure; instead, prayer made him see the unfolding of the heavenly Father's plan through complicated, seemingly even absurd situations. If, in prayer, we detach ourselves from ourselves and our anxieties and let ourselves be led upwards to see things as the Father sees them, our whole life would change and be more serene, joyful, restful, and balanced. 

What is Jesus' prayer like? First, to whom is it addressed? It's addressed to the Father. The word 'Father' is repeated no less than five times in three verses, and the Gospels, it is repeated 182 times, always in the lips of Jesus, who, when addressing God, always speaks of the Father. Only once in Philip's lips when he asks Jesus to show the Father does he call him 'Abba.' 'Abba' is the tender appellative of the child who trusts unthinkingly in the father by whom he feels loved. Even if he has a tantrum, he knows the father loves him. 

Even the pagans called God father. Jupiter, 'Iovis pater,' but father for the Christian, has another meaning. Father is the one who gives his own life; it is the life of the Eternal who has been given to us. It is not the biological life that comes from the dust but the life that comes from heaven, and Jesus wants to introduce us to this intimate relationship with God. God is not the pharaoh that we should be afraid of, before whom we must bow down on our knees—no... no more kneeling. The son does not kneel before the father. We have complicated our lives with the inventions of the Father, who punishes and sends us to hell... we have complicated our lives uselessly. Jesus never spoke of these things. 

After calling him Father, he calls him "Lord of heaven and earth," the 'παντοκράτωρ' - 'pantocrátor,' that is, the one who holds in his hands the history of the world. We must not be afraid because the destiny of humanity is in the hands of the Father who loves us. Even when events happen that are incomprehensible to us, out of our schemes and criteria, if we pray, we have this certainty that the Father continues to love us and is he who guides our lives. 

Let's listen now to the reason why Jesus blesses the Father: 

"For although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” 

In his prayer, Jesus blesses the Father for negative and positive reasons. The first is the negative: “have hidden these things from the wise and the learned." What are these things he has hidden? It is the Gospel, the Good News, the beauty of God that Jesus reveals; it is the new man that Jesus incarnates, the man who alone can love. These are things that have been hidden from the scribes and the Pharisees. It is not that God wanted to hide them; it is they who rejected them; their minds were clouded by their convictions, by their wisdom, which they did not intend to renounce; they defended the God they had created for themselves, the God that looked like them and who, therefore, was equal like them and evil like them because he took vengeance on those who transgressed his commands. 

To these self-filled people, the revelation of the beautiful and loving face of God was hidden. They did not want to accept it. Jesus was indeed astonished at this refusal. He probably expected that the first ones to give him their adhesion were the scribes and Pharisees because they knew the Scriptures and the words of the Prophets; instead, they became hostile. 

What did Jesus discover in prayer? He accepted God's surprise in this fact. If he had not prayed, he would not have understood that the surprise God used for the rejection of the Gospel by the wise and learned was to open wide the entrance of the kingdom of God to the little ones. The scribes and Pharisees despised the unlearned and uneducated. A famous rabbi taught that he who is uneducated, he who is illiterate, will be a sinner and can never be a pious person. Let us now imagine what would have happened if all these wise men had become disciples... they would have prevented the sinners, the poor, and the ignorant from entering the Christian community. The Acts of the Apostles tell us about the severe problems in the primitive Church when many Pharisees were converted. 

God revealed the beauty of his face to the little ones, that is, to those who have a simple and pure heart and are ready to accept the truth always. Jesus rejoices in this revelation he received in prayer. Now we ask ourselves, is there an explanation or justification for what has happened? Let us listen: 

"Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. 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.” 

What does Jesus mean by saying, "Yes, Father, that has been your gracious will?” It does not mean that what has happened is good. The rejection of the Gospel by the scribes and Pharisees is not good; this did not please the Father; what did please him? He was pleased to get something good out of that sin; the good was the entrance into the kingdom of God of the poor and little ones. 

The message for us then is this: The invitation to know how to grasp in prayer, as Jesus did, the plan of God's love, which is always present even in events that seem absurd to us. Our history is in the hands of the Father, who always knows how to extract good even from evil. 

Then Jesus continues: "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.” What does it mean? Jesus is saying he has brought into the world the revelation of the beauty of God. In Jesus, God has come to be seen, and we have the joy and fortune to have discovered this beauty of God through his Gospel. Previously, no one would have imagined, nor could have imagined, such a God. The Son, his perfect image, has revealed the Father to us. To know God, the true God, we must look to him. But let us remember that it is impossible to accept this revelation if we do not become small. 

Let us now listen to the invitation that Jesus addresses to us: 

“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, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” 

The relationship with God should always be a source only of joy and celebration. The Lord addresses his word to us because he wants us to be free, serene, and happy. Why does Jesus speak here of tired and burdened people? He is referring precisely to the religion of his time. The reason is that the spiritual leaders had burdened the simple people, those called 'am ha'aretz,' the people of the land. They had burdened these people with impositions that had nothing to do with the word of God; they were people’s precepts. Just think how they had reduced the precept of the Sabbath, which God had willed to prevent man from being alienated by constant work and, above all, to protect the weakest, the slaves, and the foreigners who made them work even on the Sabbath day. 

The spiritual leaders had invented a series of prohibitions and limitations. They had defined 39 forbidden actions, and each of these 39 actions had an infinite number of specifications. Behold the unbearable yoke of human precepts. When Peter gathered the assembly of disciples in Jerusalem, and there were Pharisees there who had been converted and who also wanted the Christians to hold to religious traditions, Peter said, 'Why do you tempt God by putting a yoke around the neck of the disciples, which even our forefathers did not put on, nor we could ever fulfill?’ 

This is why weariness and oppression are the precepts invented by men. Let us be careful because Jesus speaks to us today. If we perceive that in our religious practice, there is something that wearies us, that makes us feel oppressed, that does not convince us because it does not come from God's word, let us have the courage to shake off immediately these precepts that do not come from God. Then Jesus invites us to go to him to get rest. 

What is this rest? It is not what we think when we go to rest or sleep. No; here is a Hebrew word that is repeated in the Bible, מְנוּחָה, 'menuháh.' It indicates rest in the promised land of one who has left slavery and entered the land of freedom. Jesus promises and proposes to us his land of freedom: the kingdom of God in which those who accept his beatitudes enter. 

Jesus tells us: 'Do not seek joy, serenity, peace, far from me; you will not find it. Only if you come to me and accept my Gospel will you find rest because you were made for the Gospel. Take my yoke upon you; unload that yoke invented by men. The yoke that I bring is also yours.' 

What does this yoke consist of? It is that precept that does not come from outside; it comes from your identity as son and daughter of God; you are well done, and you realize immediately when you receive a request of love when someone in need asks you for a favor. You hear a precept within you, and you feel a voice, which is the voice of the Spirit, telling you, 'Love,' serve the brother who asks you for help. This is the yoke that is well adapted. 

Here is also the Greek word 'χρηστός' - grestós, which is translated as sweet; it is not 'sweet,' it indicates a willingness to serve, to be helpful, virtuous, and good. The only precept that fits well with our human nature is the precept that comes from the Spirit, the voice of the Spirit that urges you to love. ‘Learn of me,’ says Jesus. He has always listened only to the voice of his divine sonship, and from it came his meekness of heart. 

What does meek mean? In our ordinary usage, it is understood to mean the idea of the quiet person who does not react to provocations and accepts even injustice. But let us be careful because it does not mean the one who is resigned and who does not fight for justice, even if he suffers injustice. No, the meek are the people who do not react with violence but face conflicts to obtain justice so there may be justice. Jesus experienced dramatic conflicts, but he always faced them with the dispositions of heart that characterize the meek, the one who never yields to the temptation of reacting with violence, who always reacts and acts only out of love. 

And Jesus is humble of heart; not only meek but humble. In Greek, there is the term 'ταπεινός' - 'tapeinos,' and there are many Hebrew adjectives that correspond to this Greek adjective, but the most significant in Hebrew is חַנָּה 'hannav'; it comes from the verb 'Hanna,' which means to bow down, to lower the head. Who is the one who bows and lowers his head? It is not the pharaoh; it is not the great ruler with many servants, no. Those do not bow their heads; they stand erect and raise their voices. The one who bows his head is the slave, the servant, who is always ready to receive orders from his master. 

Jesus presents God—and this is the image of God that overturns the God we have invented—as a servant. Being love, he cannot be anything but a servant because the opposite of love is dominion and being great, giving orders. Here, Jesus presents himself as a servant, 'hannav.' This is the image of God that Jesus came to show us, the true face of God. And in fact, he initiated the new Kingdom, not the Kingdom of the masters but the Kingdom of the servants. Interestingly, when he enters Jerusalem, he does not enter on a horse as the great kings did but as a servant. He fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah, who had said that the righteous king would enter Jerusalem riding on an ass and would be humble ('hannav'). 

Such is the new king. Humble “of heart.” We know that the heart in the Semitic culture not only indicates the seat of affection; this is the idea of our heart. By heart, they meant what we mean by the head. We made decisions with the head; they made them with the heart, where it all started. Here, Jesus presents himself as "meek and humble of heart," that is, decisions always come from the heart of one who serves, never of one who attacks and wants to impose himself. 

Here we have now the image of the new world to be built. We can change the world if we adhere to this king who presents himself with a meek and humble heart. We don't like so many things, and we would like to change them. Everybody is trying to change them but always keeping a heart that is not humble and meek. They will never change it; if they want to change the world, continuing with competition, being the masters, they will never change it. They will change the actors, but the result will always be the same. 

Jesus proposes to change the script of this play, not the script in which all are masters and all want to dominate and impose themselves, but the world we are presented as he is, with his yoke, which is the yoke of love. If you respond to that voice of the Spirit which urges you to love as he loved you, you will change the world. Behold the new world built by those who have embraced this new kingdom. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.