SUNDAY 14 (A) (Mt 11,25-30)
In today’s gospel there are three well-defined paragraphs. The first refers to God. The second, to the total interdependence between Jesus and God. The third makes reference to the relationship between us and Jesus. In the first Christian community everyone were simple people. What would Jesus have said after Constantine?
I give thanks, Father, because…” What is important is not the thanksgiving, but the reason. Jesus cannot affirm that God gives to some what he denies to others. What he wants to say is that the true God can only be accepted by simple people without prejudice. The wise are capable of creating their own God.
Who were the simple? The Greek “nepios” has many meanings, but all go in the same direction: childish, child, minor of age, incapable of speaking; and also: foolish, unhappy, naive, weak. For the religious elite, the simple were damned, because they did not know the Law and, therefore, could not fulfill it.
These things are not knowledge, but the experiences of God that Jesus lived and that he wants to convey to us. It is not about knowing more things, but about a deeper experience. “All has been given to me by my Father…” That knowledge of God is not the fruit of human effort, but pure gift; although it is not denied to anyone.
The error of theology was to believe that we know Jesus because we knew God; if Jesus was God, we knew what Jesus was. The text says the opposite, the way to know God is to know Jesus, by making his experience of God our own.
Come to me all who are tired and burdened. The yoke was, which was certainly unbearable. Man disappeared under the weight of more than 600 precepts and 5,000 prescriptions. For the Pharisees, was the only absolute. Jesus’ task was to free man from all religious bonds.
My yoke is bearable. Jesus frees from the yoke that oppresses man. He does not propose a path of roses. Without effort there is no true humanity. It is not hard work that spoils a life, but efforts that do not lead to fulfillment.
Jesus wants to help us unfold our being without oppressions. The yoke and the burden would be, like the weight of wings for the bird. Wings have their weight, but if you take them away, how will they fly? The motor of an airplane is a tremendous burden, but thanks to that weight the airplane flies. Our limitations allow us to move forward.
We have not heeded this message. As soon as the first centuries of Christianity passed, this gospel was forgotten, and “common sense” was recovered. Never again has it been recognized that God can reveal himself to simple people. It is so surprising what Jesus tells us, that we have never believed it.
We do wrong when we let ourselves be guided by experts. At all levels we are in the hands of experts. In religion the dependence is absolute, to the point of preventing us from thinking for ourselves. Doctors has the Church…
Pius IX said: “there are only two classes of Christians, those who have the right to command and those who have the obligation to obey”. No hierarch today would dare to repeat those words, but in practice, all act from that perspective.
Jesus proposes a way of living the closeness of God, just as he deep is the one that gives meaning to existence, both of the wise and of the ignorant, both of the rich and of the poor. What leads us to fulfillment, will be light.