July 5, 2026
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 100
Reading 1
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.
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.
Reading 2
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070526.cfm
Commentary on
Zechariah 9:9-10; Romans 8:9,11-13; Matthew 11:25-30
There are two apparently contradictory sides to the
Gospel. On the one hand, there are very radical demands made on us in the
following of Jesus. An example of these ‘hard sayings’ was the Gospel of last
Sunday:
Whoever loves father or mother…son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is
not worthy of me. (Matt 10:37-38)
Luke’s Gospel in particular emphasises the absolute and
unconditional demands made of the Christian disciple. Before making the
decision of becoming a disciple of Christ, sit down and count the cost because:
…none of you can become my disciple if you do not give
up all your possessions. (Luke 14:33)
Following Christ is all or nothing; you cannot at the same
time serve God and long for material possessions and all the things that money
can buy.
Yet that passage from Luke’s Gospel is followed immediately
in chapter 15 by the three stories of God’s longing to bring back the sinner:
the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (prodigal) son. In other
words, another side of the Gospel speaks with equal emphasis of God’s warmth,
compassion and his desire for reconciliation with the weak and the sinful.
Finding the balance
So if you found last week’s readings rather demanding, they need to be balanced
against the passages in today’s Mass. It would be wrong to come down too
much on either side. The Gospel still calls for total giving of self, not
as the denial of that self, but as the only way to find one’s true self.
At the same time, our God is a God of infinite patience and compassion as we
stumble along in our efforts to unite ourselves fully with him.
The theme of today’s readings is very much one of peace and
consolation. The First Reading from the prophet Zechariah speaks of a
king entering Jerusalem riding on a young donkey. The scene is one of humility,
but also of peace. He rides on a placid donkey rather than on a prancing
war horse. This is confirmed later in the words:
He will cut off the [war] chariot from
Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow [of war] shall be cut off…
Our king is a king of peace:
…he shall command peace to the nations…
He is a king of peace, not just in the sense of an external
absence of violence, but of a deep, inner peace, i.e. shalom.
Jesus, who is identified with the king in Zechariah’s passage, also brings
peace. He is the Prince of Peace. (Jesus also brings the ‘sword’, but
this is not contradictory, as we will see below.) In today’s Gospel, he says:
Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest.
Through the tough times
Whatever demands Jesus may make on our following of him, he wants to be at all
times truly a source of comfort, of consolation and of forgiveness and
reconciliation. Whatever demands life may be making on us, he is there to
be called on. When we are in difficulties and pain, we can ask him to take
them away. He may not always do so, but we can expect him to restore our
peace. And we need to remember that Jesus is not to be seen as an escape
from our problems. Sometimes he will give us peace, not from our
pain, but within our pain. We can at times succumb to the
danger of expecting Jesus or his Mother or some other saint or even the Church
to wave a magic wand that wipes away all our problems, difficulties and
obstacles—but that is just not the case.
Jesus’ own life is an excellent example. In the garden
of Gethsemane, faced with imminent arrest, torture and execution, he did not
want to have to go through it. This is a perfectly normal human reaction
to the threat of death. Anything else would be very strange. Yet one
sometimes hears people speak as if Jesus actually wanted to go
through all those terrible experiences. No, Jesus begged his Father to spare
him going through this appalling ordeal. He prayed:
My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me…
But then he prayed:
…yet not what I want but what you want. (Matt
26:39)
The Father was silent, and his will was clear. Jesus
should face what is coming. And when sometime later, Jesus rises from his
prayer, he is a very different person. From that moment on and for the
rest of his passion experience he reveals nothing but quiet dignity and
strength in the face of all kinds of abuse and humiliation.
He is full of an inner peace, which had come once he had
said that total ‘Yes’ to his Father. His prayer in the garden had been
answered, although not in the way he originally requested.
Here we might say we have the two sides of the Gospel coming
together. On the one hand, Jesus makes that absolute and total surrender
of himself into God’s hands, but at the same time, experiences the ‘rest’ that
comes to:
…all who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens…
Paul’s experience
There is a similar example from the life of Paul. He had some kind of
(physical?) ailment which was a source of great distress to him. He felt
that it was a serious hindrance to his work of proclaiming the Gospel. He says:
Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it
would leave me… (2 Cor 12:8)
And, he says, God answered his prayer, but again not in the
way he had asked. He was told:
My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect
in weakness. (2 Cor 12:9)
His ailment, far from being an obstruction to preaching the
Gospel, in fact made the power of Christ more visible. From then on,
Paul, far from wanting his problem to be removed, says:
…I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so
that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Cor 12:9)
Paul begins to realise that:
…whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor
12:10)
And Paul found peace. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes (7:13), he
had learnt, as we need to do, that ‘God writes straight with crooked lines.’
How different from the way we sometimes approach God, or
Jesus, or Mary! We say, “God, give me this…God, I must have this or I
can’t go on…Not your will, O Lord, but mine be done! My will be done in
heaven as I am trying to get it done on earth!” Everything is upside
down. It is not surprising, then, that such prayers seem to go
unanswered.
There are some things which can be changed in life, and it
is up to us to do the changing, mainly by changing ourselves. There are
other things which cannot be changed and need to be accepted and lived
with. Peace comes from saying a sincere Yes to what is
clearly God’s will in our life. This will of God is most often made known by
the realities by which we are surrounded. Peace comes when I want, really
want, what God wants—when God’s will and mine coincide. This is not
passive fatalism; it is an active and joyful response.
Sharing the yoke
So Jesus says today:
Take my yoke upon you…and you will find rest for your
souls….For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
We think of a yoke as a heavy (and very burdensome, even
painful) piece of wood laid on the shoulders of an ox. But because of the
yoke, the ox can pull the weight of the cart behind it far more easily.
It is a burden which is also a help. The words of Jesus often seem, at first
sight, to be very burdensome. John’s Gospel tells us that:
When many of his disciples heard [his words], they said,
“This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”…Because of this many of his
disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. (John
6:60,66)
Yet, in fact, once understood, we know that there can be no
other way of living in true freedom and peace.
There is still another way of understanding the image of the
yoke. Think of it as a double yoke, where two oxen can work together
better. We now have a lovely image of Jesus and ourselves yoked together,
pulling together. “Take my yoke upon you” then becomes “Share my yoke
with me”. Where I go, he goes along with me, pulling together with me and
making it all the easier.
There is really no conflict between the two sides of the
Gospel. There is only one Jesus, only one Gospel. We are called to be
with Jesus all the way, accepting his life vision, his standards, his
values—unconditionally. This calls for the simplicity and openness of
children rather than intellectual sophistication. Accepting Jesus all the
way is not intended as a burden, but as a source of comfort, peace, liberation
and joy.
Happy are those who carry the ‘burden’, the yoke of the
Gospel. Jesus has the secret of living well. Is it not time that we
Christians discovered this wonderful secret and began to share it with others?
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/oa141/
Sunday, July 5, 2026
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures
with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In
the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the
presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the
cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life
and of resurrection. Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice
in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the
poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two
disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and
witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity,
justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us
the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading – Mt. 11: 25-30
A Key to Guide the Reading:
When Jesus realized that the little ones
understood the good news of the Reign, he was very happy. Spontaneously he
turned to the Father with a prayer of thanksgiving and extended a generous
invitation to all those suffering and oppressed by the burden of life. The text
reveals Jesus’ kindness in welcoming little ones and his goodness in offering
himself to the poor as the source of rest and peace.
A Division of the Text to Help with the
Reading:
•
Mt 11: 25-26: Prayer of thanks to the Father
•
Mt 11: 27: Jesus presents himself as the way
which leads to the Father • Mt 11: 28-30: An
invitation to all who suffer and are oppressed The Text:
•
25-26: At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless
you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the
learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for
that is what it pleased you to do.
•
27: Everything has been entrusted to me by my
Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the
Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
•
28-30: 'Come to me, all you who labour and are
overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my
yoke is easy and my burden light.'
A Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of God may enter into us and enlighten our life.
Some Questions
•
Which part of the text caught my attention most
and pleased me most?
•
In the first part (25-27), Jesus turns to the
Father. What image of the Father does Jesus reveal in his prayer? What is it
that urges him to praise the Father? What image do I have of God? When and how
do I praise the Father?
•
To whom does Jesus turn in the second part
(28-30)? What was the greatest burden carried by the people in those days? What
burden is most burdensome today?
•
Which burden comforts me?
•
How can Jesus’ words help our community to be a
place of rest in our lives?
•
Jesus presents himself as the one who reveals
the Father and as the way to Him. Who is Jesus for me?
A Key to the Reading
for those who wish to go deeper into the text.
The Literary Context of Jesus’ Words:
Chapters 10-12 of Matthew’s Gospel
•
In Matthew’s Gospel, the discourse on the
Mission takes up the whole of chapter 10. In the narrative after chapters 11
and 12, where we find a description of how Jesus fulfils the Mission, Jesus has
to face incomprehension and resistance. John the Baptist, who looked at Jesus
with an eye to the past, could not understand him (Mt 11: 1-15). The people, who
looked at Jesus with and eye to self-interest, were incapable of understanding
him (Mt 11: 16-19). The big cities around the lake that had heard the preaching
and seen the miracles will not open themselves to his message (Mt 11: 20-24).
The scribes and doctors, who judged everything according to their knowledge,
were not capable of understanding Jesus’ words (Mt 11: 25). Not even do his
relatives understand him (Mt 12: 46-50). Only the little ones understand him
and accept the good news of the Reign (Mt 11: 25-30). The others look for
sacrifices, but Jesus wants mercy (Mt 1: 8). This resistance to Jesus leads the
Pharisees to want to kill him (Mt 12: 9-14). They call him Beelzebub (Mt 12:
22-32). But Jesus does not retreat; he goes on with his mission of Servant as
described in the prophet Isaiah (Is 42: 1-4) and cited in its entirety by
Matthew (12: 15-21).
•
Thus the context in chapters 10-12 suggests that
the acceptance of the good news by the little ones is the fulfilment of the
prophet Isaiah. Jesus is the awaited Messiah, but he is not what the majority
expected him to be. He is not the glorious nationalist Messiah, nor is he a
strict judge, nor a powerful king Messiah. He is the humble Messiah, the
servant who "will not break the crushed reed, nor put out the smoldering
wick" (Mt 12: 20). He will fight on until justice and right will prevail
in the world (Mt 12: 18, 20-21). The acceptance of the Reign by the little ones
is the light that shines (Mt 5: 14) and the salt which flavors (Mt 5: 13) and the
mustard seed which (when fully grown) will provide room for the birds of the
air to nest there among its branches (Mt 13: 31-32).
A Brief Comment on Jesus’ Words:
•
Matthew
11: 25-26:
Only the little ones can understand and accept the good
news of the Reign. Jesus experiences a great joy when the little ones welcome
the message of the Reign, and, spontaneously, he transforms his joy into a
prayer of jubilation and thanksgiving to the Father: I bless you, Father, of
heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever
and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased
you to do. The learned, the doctors of that time, had created a series of laws
concerning legal purity, which they then imposed on the people in the name of
God (Mt 15: 1-9). They thought that God demanded every single observance, so
that the people might acquire peace. But the law of love, revealed by Jesus,
said otherwise. In fact, what matters is not that which we do for God, but
rather that which God, in his great love, does for us. The little ones heard
this good news and rejoiced. The learned and the doctors could not understand
this teaching. Today, as then, Jesus is teaching many things to the poor and to
the little ones. The learned and intelligent would do well to learn at the feet
of these little ones.
Jesus prayed much! He prayed with his disciples, he prayed
with the people, he prayed alone. He spent whole nights in prayer. He managed
to express his message in one prayer that contains seven concerns, namely, the
Our Father. Sometimes, as in this case, the Gospels tell us the content of
Jesus’ prayer (Mt 11: 25-26; 26: 39; Jn 11: 41-42; 17: 1-26). At other times, they
tell us that Jesus prayed the Psalms (Mt 26: 30; 27: 46). In most cases,
however, they just say that Jesus prayed. Today, everywhere prayer groups are
increasing.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the term little ones (elakistoi, mikroi, nepioi) sometimes
refers to children and sometimes to a group of people excluded from society. It
is not easy to distinguish. Sometimes, that which one Gospel calls little ones,
another Gospel calls children. Also, it is not easy to distinguish between that
which comes from the time of Jesus and that which is from the time of the
communities for whom the Gospels were written. But even so, what is clear is
the context of exclusion that prevailed then and the image of Jesus as a person
who welcomed the little ones that the early communities had of him.
•
Matthew
11: 27:
The origin of the new Law: the Son who knows the Father.
Jesus, as Son, knows the Father and knows that which the Father wanted when, in
times gone by, he had called Abraham and Sarah to form a people or when he
entrusted the Law to Moses to form a covenant. The experience of God as Father
helped Jesus to perceive in a new manner the things that God had said in the
past. It helped him to recognize errors and limitations, where the good news of
God was imprisoned by the dominant ideology. His intimacy with the Father gave
him a new criterion that placed him in direct contact with the author of the
Bible. Jesus did not move from the letter to the source, but from the source to
the letter. He sought the meaning at its origin. To understand the meaning of a
letter, it is important to study the words it contains. But Jesus’ friendship
with the author of the letter helped him uncover a deeper dimension in those
words, which study alone could not reveal.
•
Matthew
11: 28-30
Jesus invites all those who are weary
and promises them rest. The people of that time lived wearily, under the double
burden of levies and the observances demanded by the laws of purity. And Jesus
says, Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden
light. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God had invited the people to examine the
past in order to discover the right way that could give them rest for their
souls (Jer 6: 16).
This right way now appears in Jesus. Jesus offers rest for
souls. He is the way (Jn 14: 6).
Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. Like
Moses, Jesus was gentle and humble (Num 12: 3). Many times this phrase has been
manipulated to bring people into submission, meekness and passivity. Jesus
wants to say the opposite. He asks that people, in order to understand the
things of the Reign, not give so much importance to the "learned and
doctors", that is, to the official teachers of religion of the time, and
that they trust more in the little ones. Those oppressed must begin to learn
from Jesus that he is "gentle and humble in heart."
Often, in the Bible the word humble is synonymous with
humbled. Jesus, unlike the scribes who flaunted their knowledge, identified
himself with the humble and humbled people. He, our Master, knew from
experience what was in the hearts of people and how much people suffered in
their daily lives.
A Light on Jesus’ Attitude:
•
Jesus’
style in proclaiming the good news of the Reign
In his manner of proclaiming the good news of the Reign,
Jesus reveals a great passion for the Father and for the humiliated people.
Unlike the doctors of his time, Jesus proclaims the good news of God wherever
he meets people who will listen to him. In synagogues
during the celebration of the Word (Mt 4: 23). In the homes of friends (Mt 13: 36). When walking along the streets with his disciples (Mt 12: 1-8).
On the seashore, at the edge of the beach,
sitting in a boat (Mt 13: 1-3). On the mountain,
where he proclaims the beatitudes (Mt 5: 1). In the squares of villages and cities, where people bring their sick (Mt
14: 3436). Even in the temple in
Jerusalem, at the time of pilgrimages (Mt 26: 55)! In Jesus, everything is the revelation of that
which animates his inner being! He not only proclaims the good news of the
Reign, he is living proof of the Reign. In him we see what happens when someone
allows God to reign and take
possession of his/her life.
•
The
Divine Wisdom’s invitation to all who seek it
Jesus invites all those who suffer under the burden of life
to find rest and comfort in him (Mt 11: 25-30). This invitation echoes the
beautiful words of Isaiah who comforted the weary people in exile (Is 55: 1-3).
This invitation stands in correlation to Divine Wisdom, which calls people to
itself (Sir 24: 1819), saying that "her ways are delightful ways, her
paths all lead to contentment" (Prov 3: 17). Again, Wisdom says,
"Wisdom brings up her own sons, and cares for those who seek her. Whoever
loves her loves life, those who wait on her early will be filled with
happiness" (Si 4: 11-12). This invitation reveals a very important
feminine aspect of God: the gentleness and welcome that comforts, revitalizes
the person and makes it feel well. Jesus is the comfort that God gives to a
weary people
Psalm 132
The Prayer of the Little Ones
O Lord, my heart is not lifted
up, my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with
things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child
quieted at its mother's breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and for
evermore.
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to
understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions
and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us.
May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word.
You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever
and ever. Amen.
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