Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s psalm response, “The Lord remembers his covenant forever” (Ps. 105:8a) guides us in thinking about today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus. Here we have the continuation of one of the most well-known passages in all of our beloved Old Testament: God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. If you have been following the daily Mass readings for the last few weeks, then you know that we have been hearing the narratives of the great figures – Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Jacob and now Moses, who has lately taken the lead role in these passages. From the 12th Week of Ordinary Time, we have heard mention of covenant with reference to Abraham, who was promised descendants, land, and blessing on all nations through him. The covenantal theme continues throughout the Old Testament, and in today’s first reading we see God’s concern that the Hebrew people do not have land of their own, but rather are being treated badly by Pharaoh in Egypt. God’s words to Moses can be seen as a reassurance of God’s commitment to his people. God has not forgotten the suffering Hebrew people; he has not forgotten the promises he made to Abraham.
Moses, then, is supposed to bring the message of their impending delivery to the Hebrew people. No doubt it will seem incredulous to them, and, as we know, the Pharaoh will not easily let go of these slaves. But God’s promises will be kept. Abraham now has many descendants, but they still need a homeland – a place of their own to live in peace and worship the one true God, I AM.
And what of the blessing of all nations through Abraham? Well, this comes to us in the form of Jesus Christ, who comes not simply to save the Hebrew people, but to save all who will believe in him. This Jesus in today’s gospel passage from Matthew invites us to rest in him by taking up his yoke. This invitation sounds paradoxical, for a yoke is associated with burden and work, but Jesus tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden light (Mt. 11:30).
We may rightfully ask ourselves how this can be… and our answer will certainly be that God does the truly hard part for us. God keeps his own covenant, God fulfills his own promises, even though mankind go astray. And so, we find ourselves in a situation of already having been saved. We have been blessed in the life, death, and resurrection of the Christ; all nations have been blessed by the God who became man only to die for us and then overcome death. Our responsibility, rightly understood, is simply to step into that blessing, to accept our gift of salvation, and to cooperate with God’s grace freely given. It is when we are able to do so that we understand our yokes, our burdens, our crosses, to be easy and light.
Today, take some time to think about a difficulty that might feel like a heavy burden. Have you taken the time to unite this suffering to Jesus? In other words, are you sharing the yoke with Jesus? If not, pray that Jesus may assist you in living a truly Christian life, such that you might experience your crosses as opportunities for God’s grace, that is, as opportunities to recognize that God remembers his covenant forever.
- Maria Morrow