December 10, 2025
Wednesday of the Second Week
of Advent
Lectionary: 183
Reading
1
To whom can you
liken me as an equal?
says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these things:
He leads out their army and numbers them,
calling them all by name.
By his great might and the strength of his power
not one of them is missing!
Why, O Jacob, do you say,
and declare, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles' wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (1) O
bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Behold, the Lord comes to save his people;
blessed are those prepared to meet him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to the
crowds:
"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."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121025.cfm
Commentary on Isaiah
40:25-31
We continue our reading from the ‘Book of Consolation’ or
‘Second Isaiah’. Does God seem far away at times? Today’s reading invites us to
go outside some clear night and look at the skies. Thousands of stars, each one
a mighty sun, can be seen and they are only a tiny fraction of the uncountable
number of stars in our universe. Imagine the greatness of the God who is
creator and master of all these and who calls each single one by name!
However, far away from home and living in bitter exile,
God’s people wonder if their God has forgotten about them. They seem to be
comparing their God with the gods of their captors; their God is letting them
down.
The people cry out in pain, asking why:
My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God?
Yet God is fully aware of his people’s situation and he will
soon show his love and power as they return to their homeland:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint
and strengthens the powerless.
Even young people, with all their energy, can run out of
steam:
…and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted…
But not those who wait for the Lord:
…for the Lord shall renew their strength [and]
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
The reading is a message for all those who feel that life is
working against them. Some can sympathise with the words of the song:
“Into each life some rain must fall but too much is falling
in mine…”
It must certainly have been the feeling of the Israelites as
they languished far from home in a hostile and cruel land. And yet, their
deliverance is very close.
The coming of Jesus for which we are now preparing makes the
same promise and offers the same invitation in today’s Gospel:
Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)
Jesus reaffirms what Isaiah says, that we have a caring and
tireless God who takes care of his own when he says:
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Matt 11:29)
Jesus does not promise painlessness, nor does he promise to
take away every yoke, but he will share the burden with us. What Jesus does is
to help us go through the pain, because he knows what we go through. He
experienced a level of pain in his own life which we are not likely ever to have
to face.
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Commentary on
Matthew 11:28-30
In spite of what we at some times feel, both today’s First
Reading and the Gospel remind us that our God is never far away, especially in
times of trouble. In the Gospel, Jesus makes this promise and gives an
invitation:
Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest.
Jesus reaffirms what Isaiah says, that we have a caring and
tireless God who looks after his own:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.
Jesus seems primarily to be referring to the burdens which
the Mosaic Law laid on people, especially as interpreted by some of the Scribes
and Pharisees. Under them, it was next to impossible not to put a foot wrong
somewhere. And, as they saw it, perfection in the eyes of God was the
scrupulous observation of the tiniest obligation.
Jesus liberates us from all that. It does not mean that we
do what we like, but all is now reduced to simply one commandment, the
commandment to love God and all our brothers and sisters unconditionally. That
is not always easy, but we will find that keeping the commandment of love has a
liberating effect. It helps us to become the kind of people we were meant to
be. In being a law-keeper, I take care of my own ‘perfection’. In following the
law of love, I benefit, but my brother or sister benefits too.
Jesus does not say that if we go to him that we will have no
more troubles, no more pain and no more disappointments. There will be ‘yokes’
to carry, but he will carry them with us.
It has been suggested that the ‘yoke’ Jesus is referring to is
a double yoke used for two oxen pulling together. Jesus, then is saying that he
carries the yoke together with us.
Jesus never promises to take away pain. What Jesus does is
to help us go through the pain. A life without any pain, without any failure or
disappointment, a life without difficulty or challenge, is no life. When
children are so protected by doting parents that their every whim is answered
and every negative feeling anticipated, what do we end up with but what some
might call ‘spoiled brats’.
Jesus will not spoil us in that way. The challenges of life
are necessary for us to grow and mature. But they are easier to bear when he
carries them with us, when we know that we are never alone in our difficulties
and sorrows. And, because of our own pains, we are in a much better position to
help others carry their yokes of sorrow or pain or sickness. Strange as it may
seem, it is probable that a world without pain would be a very selfish and
individualistic one.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/a1024g/
Wednesday,
December 10, 2025
2nd Week of
Advent
Opening Prayer
God of power and mercy, open our hearts in welcome.
Remove the things that hinder us from
receiving Christ with joy, so that we may share His wisdom
and become one with Him when He comes in glory, for He lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 11: 28-30
“Come to me, all you who labor
and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me, for
I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
Reflection
•
Certain texts of the Gospel reveal their significance
to us when we place them in the background of the Old Testament. This is how
the very brief and very beautiful text of the Gospel of today is. In this text
there are echoes of two themes greatly loved and recalled by the Old Testament,
one from Isaiah and the other one from the so called Wisdom Books.
•
Isaiah speaks of the Messiah, the Servant, and
represents him as a disciple who is always looking for a word of comfort so as
to be able to encourage those who are discouraged: “The Lord has given me a
learned tongue, for me to know how to give a word of comfort to the weary.
Morning by morning, he awakens my ear that I may hear him as a master” (Is 50:
4). And the Messiah Servant launches an invitation: “Oh, come to the water all
you who are thirsty; though you have no money come! Buy and eat; come buy wine
and milk without money, free” (Is 55: 1). These texts were present in the
memory of the people. They were like the songs of our childhood. When people
listened to them, there is nostalgia. The same with the words of Jesus: “Come
to me!” revived the memory of the nostalgic echo of those beautiful texts of
Isaiah.
•
The Books of Wisdom represent the divine wisdom
as a woman, a mother who transmits to her sons her wisdom and tells them: “Buy
her without money, put your necks under her yoke, let your souls receive
instruction. She is near, within your reach. See for yourselves; how slight my
efforts have been to win so much peace” (Si 51:25- 27). Jesus repeats this same
phrase: “You will find rest!”
•
Because of His way of speaking to people, Jesus
awakens their memory and thus their hearts rejoiced and said: “The Messiah, so
greatly awaited for, has come!” Jesus transformed the nostalgia into hope. He
made people advance a step forward. Instead of fixing themselves on the image
of a glorious Messiah, king and dominator, taught by the scribes, the people
changed their opinion and accepted Jesus, Messiah Servant. A humble and meek
Messiah, welcoming and full of tenderness, who made them feel at ease: the poor
together with Jesus.
Personal Questions
•
Is the Law of God a light yoke which encourages
me, or is it a weight which gets me tired?
•
Have I felt sometimes the lightness and the joy
of the yoke of the Law of God which Jesus has revealed to us?
Concluding Prayer
Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being, His holy
name; bless
Yahweh, my soul, never forget all his acts of kindness. (Ps
103)
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