Catechism Links[1]
CCC 514-521: Knowledge of
mysteries of Christ, communion in his mysteries
CCC 238-242: The Father is
revealed by the Son
CCC 989-990: The resurrection of the
body
 |
| “Christ the Redeemer” by Andrea Del Sarto, c. 1650 |
Readings and
Commentary:[4]
Reading 1: Zechariah 9:9-10
Thus says the LORD:
Rejoice heartily, O
daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O
daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall
come to you;
a just savior is he,
meek, and riding on an
ass,
on a colt, the foal of
an ass.
He shall banish the
chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
the warrior’s bow shall
be banished,
and he shall proclaim
peace to the nations.
His dominion shall be
from sea to sea,
and from the River to
the ends of the earth.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Zec 9:9-10
The oracle of the Prophet Zechariah speaks of the restoration of
Israel following the great exile. In this section he speaks of the coming of
the Messiah. “The Messiah will come, not as a conquering warrior, but in
lowliness and peace. Not like the last kings of Judah, who rode in chariots and
on horses (Jeremiah
17:25; 22:4), but like
the princes of old (Genesis
49:11; Judges
5:10; 10:4), the
Messiah will ride on an ass. The Evangelists see a literal fulfillment of this
prophecy in the Savior's triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:4-5; John 12:14-15).” [5]
CCC: Zec 9:9 559
-------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
R. (cf. 1) I will praise your name
for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will extol you, O my
God and King,
and I will bless your
name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless
you,
and I will praise your
name forever and ever.
R. I will praise your
name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The Lord is gracious and
merciful,
slow to anger and of
great kindness.
The Lord is good to all
and compassionate toward
all his works.
R. I will praise your
name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let all your works give
you thanks, O Lord,
and let your faithful
ones bless you.
Let them discourse of
the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your
name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The Lord is faithful in
all his words
and holy in all his
works.
The Lord lifts up all
who are falling
and raises up all who
are bowed down.
R. I will praise your
name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
Psalm 145 is a hymn of praise. The
singer invites all to join in praising God for all the Lord has done. God is
praised for his creation, his kindness, and his mercy toward those who have
fallen on hard times.
CCC: Ps 145:9 295,
342
-------------------------------------------
Reading II: Romans 8:9, 11-13
Brothers and sisters:
You are not in the
flesh;
on the contrary, you are
in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God
dwells in you.
Whoever does not have
the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
If the Spirit of the one
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised
Christ from the dead
will give life to your
mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that
dwells in you.
Consequently, brothers
and sisters,
we are not debtors to
the flesh,
to live according to the
flesh.
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.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Rom 8:9, 11-13
After his warning in Romans 7
against the wrong route to fulfillment of the objective of holiness expressed
in Romans 6:22, Paul
points his addressees to the correct way. Through the redemptive work of
Christ, Christians have been liberated from the terrible forces of sin and
death. Holiness was impossible so long as the flesh (or our "old self")
was alive. The same Spirit that enlivens Christians for holiness will also
resurrect their bodies at the last day. Christian life is, therefore, the
experience of a constant challenge to put to death the evil deeds of the body
through life of the spirit (Romans 8:13).[6]
CCC: Rom 8:9 693; Rom
8:11 632,
658, 693, 695, 989, 990
-------------------------------------------
Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30
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.”
“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.”
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mt
11:25-30
Jesus has just completed a fairly
scathing criticism of the people in the places he has been and performed
miracles, yet many have not accepted him as the Messiah. He now concludes this
section as he reflects that, while the scribes and Pharisees (“the wise and
learned”) have not understood who he is, those with simple faith have accepted
him freely. He then issues an invitation to all who “labor and are burdened”
quoting an invitation similar to one in the book of Sirach to learn wisdom and
submit to her yoke (Sirach
51:23, 26).
“This Q saying, identical
with Luke 10:21-22 except
for minor variations, introduces a joyous note into this section, so dominated
by the theme of unbelief. While the wise and the learned, the scribes and
Pharisees, have rejected Jesus' preaching and the significance of his mighty
deeds, the childlike have accepted them. Acceptance depends upon the Father's
revelation, but this is granted to those who are open to receive it and refused
to the arrogant. Jesus can speak of all mysteries because he is the Son and
there is perfect reciprocity of knowledge between him and the Father; what has
been handed over to him is revealed only to those whom he wishes.”[7]
The final verses of this section
are found only in St. Matthew’s Gospel and promise salvation to those who are downtrodden
or in pain.
CCC: Mt 11:25-27 2603,
2779; Mt 11:25-26 2701; Mt
11:25 153,
544, 2785; Mt 11:27 151,
240, 443, 473; Mt 11:28 1658; Mt
11:29-30 1615; Mt
11:29 459
-------------------------------------------
Homily:
Heavenly
Father, we humbly pray that those suffering from the coronavirus be returned
quickly to full health by the power of your Son’s healing presence, and those
in fear be calmed through the Holy Spirit.
In
Christ’s name we pray. – Amen.
Unless your homes were
all much better insulated than mine, most of us went to bed last night with
sounds that might have reminded us of a war zone. Fireworks are a
long-standing tradition as we in America celebrate our nation’s birth.
While the actual birth date was earlier in the week, I wanted to provide just a
quick reminder of what was said and codified back in 1776. Let me just
read once more the opening lines to our “Declaration of Independence.”
When in the Course of
human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness.—
Anyone who reads these
words should have no doubt that our founding fathers were faith-filled,
religious men who valued the moral and ethical statutes by which their faith
informed them. Those principles are under attack even as we celebrate
some victories for religious freedom in the courts. There continues to be
a backlash in the form of constant attacks on faith-based organizations and
religious institutions, notably among
them the Wisconsin-based “Freedom From Religion” and the Southern Poverty Law
Center. The Wisconsin group uses the image of Margaret Sanger, the racist,
atheist founder of Planned Parenthood whose motto was “No Gods – No Masters”
we can only assume their ultimate goal is a godless anarchy rather than “Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In many cities anarchists from the far
left and far right still use the guise of Black Lives Matter to spread
destruction, now attempting to erase and rewrite history through the
destruction of national monuments (including we might add the statue of Saint
Junipero Serra, saying he subverted the Native Americans in the region).
How different that
rhetoric than what we hear from Christ in the Gospel from Saint Matthew.
The Lord, in earlier scripture, has been lamenting the fact that the scribes
and Pharisees would not accept him as the Messiah, even though he had performed
numerous signs and wonders which should have convinced them. In this
passage, we just heard the Lord give us his great invitation:
“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.”
He describes himself as
“meek and humble of heart” the same image predicted by Sirach in the first
reading (who for good measure added the detail Jesus would later fulfill as he
triumphantly entered Jerusalem- “riding an ass”). He offers peace and his
easy burden.
The easy yoke he speaks
of is important for us to consider. He is contrasting his commandments to
us with the micro-management of the Pharisaic interpretation of God’s Law as
delivered by Moses and the authors of the Torah. Under the Pharisaic
tradition there were over 600 individual stipulations that needed to be
rigorously followed. We have heard some of these restrictions in other
stories in the Gospels – most especially Jesus' insistence on performing
miracles on the Sabbath, which the Jewish leadership considered as “work,” all
forms of which were forbidden on the Sabbath. In the Acts of the Apostles
we also heard the challenge of bringing uncircumcised Gentiles into the fold.
The Lord tells us,
compared with all of those customs and traditions, his yoke is easy (recall the
yoke is a device placed upon work animals such as horses, mules, and oxen to
steer them). In saying this he tells us that if, for instance, we eat
pork, a meat forbidden under the Torah’s dietary laws, we will not be condemned
or fall from God’s grace. In that sense we are given very gentle guidance
by our Savior.
Where it gets more
challenging is when we consider what is this yoke the Lord considers to be
easy? What is the one overarching commandment the Lord gives us as the
yoke we are invited to take to steer us? It is simple. He calls us
to first love God and then to love one another as he loves us; pretty simple
really. Yet in practice, this commandment is very challenging.
To be clear, we can love
a person and not consider them to be great friends. We can love a person
and, since we are not like Jesus in all things, get mad at them and disagree
with them. What we are forbidden to do by this yoke of love is to wish
them harm or to embrace hatred.
The burden the Lord
places upon is light indeed since he has offered to take a majority of that
burden upon himself. He offered himself on the Cross to atone for our
sins, taking upon himself the great burdens we pile upon ourselves when we
cannot accept the yoke of love and fall into sin.
Today we are challenged
indeed. We are attacked by those who wish to destroy the foundation of
faith upon which our country was built and we are asked to love those who hate
us. Let us all do our very best to accept the easy yoke that takes us to
peace and reject our natural instincts to throw that yoke off and behave as
wild animals do.
In this strange year where many of us will not be able to receive
the Blessed Sacrament or celebrate as a community in our houses of worship, we
must be prepared to receive spiritual communion in prayer:
My Jesus,
I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things,
and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment
receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You
were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be
separated from You.
Amen.
Pax
In other years on this
date in the United States: Optional Memorial for Saint
Elizabeth of Portugal (perpetually transferred from July 4th)
Or:
Or:
[1]
Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, published by the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2]
The picture used today is
“Christ the Redeemer” by Andrea Del Sarto, c. 1650.
[4]
The readings are taken
from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response
which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy
(ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use
only.
[5]
NAB footnote on Zechariah
9:9.
[6] Taken in part from the NAB footnote on Romans
8:1-13.
[7]
NAB footnote on Matthew
11:25ff.
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