14Th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Well, here we are trying to get into the holiday mood as the school’s close and the people go on holiday. It is a time when things get quieter with less traffic and fewer people around. It is a good time to get things done that we wouldn’t get the chance to do with all the hustle and bustle going on around us. The readings show Jesus as a humble and peaceful king. God cares for the weak and tired. Jesus invites people to trust him and find rest in his gentle way. In the First Reading from Zechariah The prophet says a king will come to Jerusalem. He will be good and bring victory. But he will also be humble, riding on a donkey. He will bring peace to all nations. His rule will reach everywhere. In the Second Reading from Romans, we are told that if God’s Spirit lives in you, you belong to Christ. God will give you life through his Spirit. Do not follow sinful ways. Live by the Spirit, and you will have life.
One of the most wonderful things about Jesus is his special love for ordinary people like us with all our faults and failings. It comes out in a particular way within the two statements that he makes in this Sundays Gospel reading. The first is in his prayer to God: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’ The second is in his Invitation to all of us: ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.’ Why did he say this to us? The answer comes across very clearly so many times in the gospels and may be summed up in one word COMPASSION. We see Jesus’s compassion in the plight and tears of the widow of Nain: ‘Don’t cry,’ he says to her, before bringing her son back to life. He is moved with compassion at the plight of a leper begging for help (Mk 4:41), he shows compassion for two blind men sitting at the side of a road and pleading for mercy (Mt 20:29-34), and he shows compassion for the crowd of people with nothing to eat (Mk 8:2) the feeding of the five thousand then took place. In each case he responds to the suffering people he sees with the love, compassion that shows the compassionate care and love of God the father.
So, in the here and now of our daily lives are we on the side of Jesus, that is the side of compassion, kindness, help, healing, and mercy? Or on the side of the scribes and Pharisees who are among us even today and they are fierce, fault-finding, heartless, critical, and merciless people without compassion. Will we take our cue from their cruel, insensitive judgments and actions? Or will we take our inspiration from what we see in Jesus, and his compassionate outreach to the poor and the broken: when he said, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. These words are a clear invitation for us as we are invited to see that God’s care is close and simple. He is faithful and merciful, leading with kindness. This is also an invitation for us to live a life of simplicity. Happiness does not that having more is better instead it means being content with what we have. Jesus invites us, “Come to me!” And He waits for us so let us take up our rest for our hearts are restless until they rest in him.
Fullerton T 