Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Jesus tells 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 of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11: 28-30). What does it mean for us to accept Christ's invitation to “meekness and humility"? 1. First, I would like to talk about what meekness and humility is not. Meekness and humility is not weakness. A woman tolerating unending abuse by her husband for the sake of peace in her home is not meekness; a child keeping quiet about abuse at the hands of clergy is not meekness and humility; uncritical acceptance of oppressive social structures such as racism, abuse of authority, unjust wars, poverty, hunger and starvation is not meekness and humility. All this is sin. Jesus did not tolerate it and he stood firm. Real meekness and humility is not about how we allow ourselves to be treated but rather how we treat others. Real meekness is about being conscious of our dignity as the children of God and relate with others with that same dignity.

2. To be meek and humble of heart means to allow God to be God. When Jesus declares that he is meek and humble of heart, he was also talking about his relationship with his Father. Here was Jesus, merely thirty years of age, progressively seeing his life taking a dangerous turn. Within three years of his first inaugurating the kingdom of God, he found himself crucified. In meekness and humility, he had prayed, “Father, take this cup away from me, but not my will but yours be done.” Jesus let God be God. Jesus lived life from God’s perspective. Sometimes, unlike us who try to figure out how God fits into our scheme of things, Jesus constantly strived to see how his life fitted into God’s schemes of things. To be meek and humble of heart is to let God be God in our lives.

3. To be meek and humble of heart means to bow down before the Truth. The world and all in it is God’s creation. Jesus often used nature to teach his disciples the truth about life. The world comes to us with natural truths and divine truths. Some of them are simple: We cannot kill our own babies; we cannot unceasingly continue to kill each other in wars; we cannot exploit the earth’s resources; we cannot oppress and exploit each other; there are no superior and inferior in God’s eyes because God lets rain and sun fall on all people; the world cannot be a better place with God outside it. To be meek and humble of heart is to let the eternal divine and natural truths guide us. Because, the moment we try to subvert the truth, we will destroy ourselves.

- Fr. Satish Joseph