Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

There is movie running these days at the Neon Art theatre – Then She Found Me. Toward the end, there is a rather powerful scene in the movie. But let me give you the context. The movie is about a 39 year old single school teacher April Epner (Helen Hunt), who was adopted into a devout Jewish family as a year old baby. Though she herself was adopted, April desperately wants a child of her own. Her adopted mother’s final advice to her before she dies was to adopt a baby. April is a devout Jewish woman, the kind of person who would not eat a meal without giving thanks and pray before any important event. Then follows a chain of events - her rather sudden marriage, an equally sudden end of her marriage, and her realizing that her only chance of having a baby has vanished. To add to her frustration her biological mother Bernice (Bette Midler), who gave her up for adoption, barges back into her life as if nothing had ever gone wrong. Her hilarious nature adds to the much needed humor in the movie. The last thing April can expect from her mother is faith in God because she had none. Three weeks after her being dumped by her husband, just when she was getting into a relationship with a man who really loved her, April discovers that she is pregnant with her former husband’s baby. We can imagine the complications arising from this new development. Tragically, though, she loses the baby in miscarriage. She is so desperate for a baby that she tries the artificial method. In the room with her on the day of her impregnation is her biological mother. Just before she is impregnated, the doctor asks April if she is ready. She says, yes. But Bernice stops her. Her mother reminds her that she had not prayed like she would normally do. April refuses to pray. Her mother on the other hand insists that she should pray. April breaks down at this point saying, “I had faith!” Obviously, after all that had happened, especially after she had lost her baby, she could not find the strength to believe. This is the most touching part of the movie. Her mother questions her, “You cannot believe in God now? Why? Because God is like you: complicated, difficult to understand?” Something hit her at that moment. April then prays the schema, and she is impregnated. There are more twists to the plot but --I will not reveal the end of the movie in case you want to see it. When I read today’s readings I felt about God exactly the way Bernice describes God – complicated, difficult to understand, full of surprises, filling life with twists and turns. Someone explain to me why God, known in the Old Testament for his power, might and triumph over Israel’s enemy, is suddenly describes as “meek, and riding on an colt? Why would he come to banish the warrior’s bow, to proclaim peace to the nations?” (Zech 9:9). After all the wars in which God supported Israel, why would God’s dominion suddenly change to a dominion of peace and justice and love? Not only does God make that promise but we do get to see this meek and humble God in Jesus. He comes ever so powerless, ever so vulnerable, so meek and humble. In today’s gospel reading Jesus asks his disciples to learn from him for he is “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11: 28-30). When we think of the meek and humble Jesus it is not uncommon for our minds to think of Jesus’ arrest, his trial, his torture and his death at the hands of the Romans. We tend to interpret Jesus’ silence, his refusal to defend himself, and his willingly carrying the cross as the sign of meekness and humility. And yet, that is such a wrong understanding of meekness and humility. We must also think of the Jesus who debated with the Pharisees, and who did not hesitate to speak the truth to Pilate or the religious leaders. We must not forget the Jesus who took up the whip and turned the tables. We must not forget the Jesus who stood up for the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned to death. Just when we think we have figured God out, we realize that there is so much more to God.

The bottom line is the invitation that Jesus gives 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). Let me offer three points on what “meekness and humility” might mean for us today.

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. That is what Bernice was saying in the movie to April - 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. This is what Paul means when he says in the second reading, “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”(Rom 8: 13).

“Come to me,” Jesus says to us once again this evening, “and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11: 28-30). There is tremendous freedom in living life from God’s perspective, even if it costs us our life. The yoke is easy and the burden is light for those who live life in meekness and humility. As we celebrate this Eucharist, let us heed Christ’s invitation. Amen.

- Fr. Satish Joseph