GOSPEL: Matthew 11, 25-30
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...
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.
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.”
“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.
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.”
“Come to me, all you who labour 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.”
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.”
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
Kieran’s summary . . The gift of Understanding is not simply a characteristic of intelligent people. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and his gifts are for everyone! Understanding is the capacity to comprehend the connections between things. It gives us the ability to see beyond the disconnected appearance of events, and it permits us to gaze upon the true inner nature of things. Evidently, this capacity goes beyond human capabilities. In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the gift of Understanding is granted to the childlike. To know God’s mysteries, you don’t have to be cultured or educated, but small! Humility is the gateway to a wisdom that goes beyond human intelligence. Jesus then invites us to take his yoke upon him. The characteristic of a yoke was that it was generally made for two. Jesus wishes to walk with us in bearing this load. And what is the load? It is the negation of our ego. A beautiful event in the conversion of St Francis of Assisi recounts how, when the saint embraced a leper, he ceased to worship himself. The yoke of Christ is liberating because it frees us from ourselves.
Understanding is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It grants us the ability to see the connection between things, to form a perspective that goes beyond the disconnected appearance of facts and events, and it permits us to gaze into a thing’s true nature.
When the Holy Spirit enters the heart, he brings with him a series of gifts - seven to be exact - and one of these is Understanding. This gift is not the same as a personal characteristic of the person. It does not belong only those who are intelligent. If it did, then it would not be for everyone, whilst the Holy Spirit is Lord and gives life to everyone. Understanding, therefore, is not precluded to those who they are less gifted. It is the ability to understand the "connection" between things. The word “intellect” (which is the equivalent of the term “understanding” in Latin) derives from the expression intus-legere or intus-ligare. This refers to the activity of understanding how things are connected to each other (ligare) and allows you to see beyond (legere) the disconnected appearance of facts and expressions. However, its peculiar characteristic is an inner gaze (intus) on things. No wonder people are inclined to think that understanding requires brains!
In order to understand the deepest connection between things, we need childlike humility because these things are beyond the reach of human intelligence. Humility is the gateway to wisdom
The deepest connection between things, of course, lies in the way that the Lord weaves events together. His thread of Providence unifies history and gives it a direction. As they say, God brings this providence to fruition using crooked lines to write straight. If all this seems to us like something that requires enormous intellectual abilities, then we are not wrong. It requires unprecedented abilities that are completely beyond the reach of human intelligence. This is the point of the Gospel this Sunday: understanding the providential connection between things is not achieved by one's own ability, but by the gift of God. “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and to the learned and you have revealed them to the little ones”. To know the wonderful secret of everything, you don't have to be cultured or qualified, but small. This Wisdom of knowing one’s littleness (which is another gift of the Holy Spirit), involves a humble intuition of itself, which is a form of Knowledge (a further gift of the Holy Spirit!) entirely different to the one we associate with bookishness. Every Eucharistic liturgy invites us to practice this knowledge at the beginning of every celebration: "In order to celebrate the holy mysteries worthily, we recognize our sins". One enters the light because one comes from darkness.
Christ has a light yoke for us. It is the yoke of being free from ourselves. When we recognize our smallness and misery, God reveals his mysteries to us.
It is important to know one's own poverty. This doesn’t mean that we become fixated with our defects, analyzing them constantly, impatient with our limits and fragility. Such scrupulousness can have its origin in pride. Rather, what we need to do is recognize our sins, the evil we have done in thoughts, words, deeds and even omissions. In fact, the omissions are often the most serious: the wrong we do is certainly bad, but never as bad as the good that has not been done. God reveals his mysteries to those who know their own misery, to those who are aware of their failures in love and recognize the dark part of their hearts. With God we win when we lose, we become strong when we admit our weaknesses, we become wise when we recognize our stupidity, we become adults when we confess our smallness, we enter into peace when we become aware of our fixations. Christ has a light yoke for us to take, full of the Holy Spirit: it is the yoke of freedom from ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment