Things Revealed to the Little Ones
Gospel Commentary 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap

ROME, JULY 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- This Sunday’s Gospel, among the most intense and profound of Gospel passages, has 3 parts: a prayer -- "I bless you, Father" -- a declaration of Jesus about himself -- "Everything has been given to me by my Father" -- and an invitation -- "Come to me all who labor."

I will limit my remarks to the first element, the prayer, because it contains a revelation of extraordinary importance: "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you kept these things hidden from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to the little ones. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure."

The Pauline Year has just begun and the best comment on these words of Jesus is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians: "Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

"Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast 11 before God" (1:26-29).

Christ’s and Paul’s words shed a singular light on today’s world. It is a situation that is repeated. The wise and the intelligent keep their distance from faith, they often look with pity upon the crowds of believers who pray, who believe in miracles, who crowd around Padre Pio. Not all scholars do this, certainly, and perhaps not even the majority of them, but undoubtedly the most influential ones do, the ones who have the most powerful microphones, the group with the access to the major media.

Many of them are honest and intelligent persons and their position is more the fruit of education, environment and life experience, than of resistance to truth. So, I am not judging individuals. I know some such persons and I hold them in great esteem. But this should not stop us from pointing to the heart of the problem. The closure to every revelation from above, and thus to faith, is not caused by intelligence but by pride, a special pride that refuses all dependence and claims an absolute autonomy.

They entrench themselves behind the magic word "reason" but in reality it is not the famous "pure reason" that demands it, nor is it demanded by a "sovereign" reason. It is demanded rather by an enslaved reason, by wings that have been clipped.

Consider what certain philosophers who cannot be accused of a lack of intelligence and dialectical ability have said on this score. Blaise Pascal observed: "Reason’s supreme act is in recognizing that there are an infinite number of things that surpass it."

Soren Kierkegaard wrote: "It has always been said that science, which seeks to understand, is not satisfied when it is claimed that this or that thing cannot be understood. Here is the mistake.

"The opposite must be said: if human science does not want to admit that there is something that it cannot understand, or -- to put it more precisely -- that there is something that it can clearly ‘understand that it cannot understand,’ then there are problems.

"Therefore it is the task of human knowledge to understand that there are things that it cannot understand and what these are."

Those who do not admit this ability of going beyond are putting limit on reason and humiliating it. But this is not what the believer does since he is open to this possibility of transcending.

What I have said explains why modern thought, after Nietzsche, no longer values "truth," but rather the "pursuit" of truth and thus sincerity, which has replaced truth. Sometimes this attitude is taken to be one of humility -- being content with what philosophers like Gianni Vattimo call "weak thought" -- but this is a superficial judgment.

So long as the person is seeking, he is the one who is the protagonist, he is the one who sets down the rules of the game. But once truth is found, it is truth that takes the throne and the seeker must bow before truth and this requires -- when it is a matter of transcendent truth -- the "sacrifice of the intellect."

Jesus’ statements in John’s Gospel -- "I am the truth"; "No one comes to the Father but through me"; "Come to me all you who labor and have heavy burdens and I will give you rest" -- are provocations to our contemporary culture. But these are invitations not reproofs and they are also addressed to those who are tired of seeking and finding nothing, to those who have gone through life knocking up against the rock of mystery.

The psychologist C.G. Jung, in a book of his, says that all patients of a certain age to came to him suffered from something that could be called an "absence of humility" and could not be healed until they acquired an attitude of respect in the face of a reality greater than them, that is, an attitude of humility.

Jesus also repeats to the many honest intelligent and wise people of the world of today his invitation full of love: "Come to me all you who labor and have heavy burdens and I will give you rest and that peace that you seek in vain in your tormented reasoning."

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

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Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher. The readings for this Sunday are Zechariah 9:9-10; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30.

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In the last part of today’s gospel, Jesus addresses people who are desperately trying to find God, who are exhausted with the search for the truth, who are desperately trying to be good, and who find the task impossible. God gave his people basic guidelines for a holy life, but the Pharisees ended up making God's Law inaccessible and impossible to follow. For the orthodox Jew, religion was a matter of burdens: 613 Mosaic laws and thousands of oral interpretations which dictated every aspect of life. Jesus invites us to take his yoke upon our shoulders. In Palestine ox-yokes were made of wood and were made to fit the ox comfortably. For a contemporary analogy, consider the advantages of a new, high-tech, athletic equipment. By saying that his “yoke is light” Jesus means that whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly.

The second part of Jesus’ claim is: "My burden is light." Jesus does not mean that the burden is easy to carry; but it is laid on us in love; it is meant to be carried in love; and love makes even the heaviest burden light. When we remember the love of God, when we know that our burden is to love God and to love men, then the burden becomes easy. Jesus is returning to the simplicity of God's original Covenant and Law, to give people what they need to guide their path easily. By following Jesus, a man will find peace, rest, and refreshment. Although we are not overburdened by the Jewish laws, we are burdened by many other things: business, concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age and a thousand other things. Jesus' concern for our burdens is as real as his concern for law-burdened Jews of his day. "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest."

Jesus still gives us rest!


Unload your burdens before the Lord. This is one of the functions of Worship for many of us - a time for rest and refreshment - when we let the overheated radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord and unload the burdens of our sins and worries on the altar and offer them to God during the Holy Mass. That too is one of the functions of prayer and of Christian fellowship - whether alone in our quiet spot where we come before God each day, or in our homes and in the homes of our friends and neighbors - to bring to us the rest and refreshment that we all need so much. There is nothing quite like coming to the Lord and setting aside our burdens for a while - nothing quite like having our batteries recharged, our radiators cooled down and our spirits lifted. Jesus promises rest from the burdens that we carry - rest from the burdens of sins, legalism and judgment and from the weight of anxiety and worry and from the yoke of unrewarding labor and endless labor for that which cannot satisfy. The absolution and forgiveness which we have received as repentant sinners take away our spiritual burden as well and enable us to share the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Get free from unnecessary burdens: life's greatest burden is not having too much to do, nor having too much to care about because some of the happiest folk are the busiest and those who care the most. Rather the greatest burden we have is our constant engagement with the trivial and the unimportant - with the temporary and the passing with the ultimately uncontrollable and unpredictable. The issue in life is not if we shall be burdened - but with what shall we be burdened, it is not if we shall be yoked - but to what and with whom we shall be yoked. Jesus has no interest in unburdening us from our exaggerated self-esteem or from other modern infatuations which are themselves debilitating burdens. Jesus is interested in lifting the burdens off our backs that drain us, that smell of elderberries the life out of us, so that he can place around our necks his own yoke - his burden - that brings to us and to others through us, new life, new energy, new joy. God's incomparable, compassionate forgiveness is a gift that releases us into life with God as responsible human beings who want to grow deeper in love and joyful obedience. we are called not only to find peace, refreshment and rest for ourselves but also to live the kind of lives through which others, too, find God's peace, God's refreshing grace, and the joy of placing their lives in God's hands.