This weekend, the Church celebrates the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. In the time of Christ, the Jews believed that careful study of the Law was the best way to obtain wisdom and understand God. But this way of thinking made ordinary people believe that wisdom was far above them and an inaccessible academic field – unless they learned the original language and dedicated the time to studying the Scriptures. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus clarifies that we need not become scholars in order to know God: it is more important to become like children. So when Jesus walked on this earth, He drew in those on the margins of society: the poor, the sick, and the sinners. Because they were humble, they were able to listen to Jesus, whereas the educated only saw how different Jesus’ message was from their complicated understanding of the Law and thus rejected Him. The yoke that Jesus gives us is light and easy because it gives us solace to face life’s difficulties and allows us to experience the love of the Father. Jesus has always known the Father and by grace, we may be adopted as His sons and daughters and thus know the Father. Jesus wants us to learn His mercy and goodness and for this reason, He uses the analogy of the yoke. We cannot be lazy, just as farmers must still exert themselves while using a good yoke, but at least we need not waste ourselves to exhaustion.
「Spiritual Talk」Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Fr. Anthony Ho
