Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1: Zec 9:9-10
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
Reading 2: Rom 8:9, 11-13
Gospel: Mt 11:25-30
Zechariah is one of the post-exilic prophets, meaning he received the prophetic call after the Babylonian Exile, about 520 B.C. (the exile lasted from 587 to about 540 B.C.). Zechariah was active in the period referred to as the “restoration” when the people were beginning to return to Judah from Babylon and were beginning to reestablish themselves in the city of Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple. Zechariah was particularly active in encouraging the returned exiles and their leaders to rebuild the temple. In chapter 8 he gives us his vision of the messianic age when the restored Israel will be a prosperous land to which foreigners will make pilgrimage, in order to worship the God of Israel.
Our reading this week comes from a section of chapter 9 called “Restoration under the Messiah,” where Zechariah prophesied the future coming of the Messiah. But the Messiah will not be what the people expect. He will not come as a warlord riding in a chariot or on horseback like the previous kings of Judah and Israel. He will enter: “Meek, riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” This prophecy was fulfilled about 500 years later, on Palm Sunday.
Zechariah’s message to those who heard him was: “Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion.” And why should they rejoice after their nation and temple have been destroyed by the Babylonians and they’ve spent years in exile? Because prior to the Babylonian conquest and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the people believed that God resided in the temple. Consequently, when the temple was destroyed, it was understood that God had abandoned the people because of their sins. In the same manner we, as Christians, understand that our un-repented and un-forgiven sins separate us from God, and we find ourselves in exile from God. But Zechariah promised the people that the exile was over; they had done penance for their sins through the exile, and, with the coming of the Messiah, sins will be forgiven and God will restore Israel to its former glory and establish peace from sea to sea. We should equate that restored Israel with a vision of heaven wherein peace and happiness will reign forever. As Christians, we already know that the Messiah has come and will come again. We also know that it is only through the Messiah that sins are forgiven and exile from God is ended so that we can take our place in that restored Israel.
In our second reading from Romans, St. Paul tells us the same thing using different words. If we choose to remain in the flesh, then we remain slaves to sin and we will be eternally exiled from God. But Christ sent the Holy Spirit to those who will accept the Spirit so that we no longer have to live in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Although our flesh is mortal: “The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also.” Therefore, rejoice heartily, your exile is over, if you accept what God has offered and live in the Spirit.
Our gospel passage from chapter 11 of Matthew is called: “The Praise of the Father.” Although the wise and the learned Scribes and Pharisees have rejected Jesus’ message and the significance of the miracles he performed, the childlike have accepted them. But acceptance of the message is predicated on knowledge of the Father, and no one can know the Father except those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. As “all things have been handed over” to Jesus from the Father, Jesus affirms that he is the one to share the throne with the Father and is, therefore, co-eternal with the Father and shares the mind of the Father. And, as Jesus shares the mind of the Father, he therefore knows who will accept and who will reject his message. And he chooses to reveal the Father, and the truth that comes from the Father, only to those who will accept that knowledge; not to the arrogant.
So what’s our Golden Thread this week? Rejoice heartily!!! Although the words of Zechariah were addressed to the returning exiles over 2000 years ago, encouraging them to rejoice because their exile; their separation from God; was over and their past sins were forgiven, those words are also addressed to us because Jesus has chosen to reveal the Father to us through the Holy Spirit because we have accepted that Spirit. And through acceptance of that Spirit our separation from God because of sin has ended, but only if we allow the Spirit to direct us in the ways of Christ and in the forgiveness of sins through the sacraments of the church which Jesus established for us for the purpose of making us holy through forgiveness of sins.
The yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden light because he has given us the Holy Spirit to strengthen us for the burden. Therefore, “Rejoice Heartily” because our exile is over.
