EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

18TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: (Is 55:1-3; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Math 14:13-21)
Theme: We are called to be the ‘Living Bread’ for the people

Reflections:

- After three or four weeks of the reflection on the parables of the mystery of the Kingdom of God, in which we have mediated that we have to be ‘the good soil - the good seed among the weeds – the mustard seed – the yeast and finally – the hidden treasure – the precious pearl and the net thrown into the sea’ and thus have mediated that we are to participate in this mystery of the kingdom of God by being available and being in search and being ready to embrace it, now we move on to see the ‘marvelous operations’ of Jesus.
- The thirteen chapter of Mathew stands as an ‘introduction’ or ‘the departure point’ to all the next chapter that follow just as the chapter 5-6-7 stand for the following chapters. Thus Mathews gospel structure and more over his ‘Messianic message’ in and through Jesus seems to be like this: reminding of the Old Covenant – the advent of the New Covenant – the fulfillment of the both in the person of Jesus – the word/preaching of Jesus – the deed/miracles of the mercy of Jesus;
- In this way, the Gospel of Mathew seems to be having ‘two parts’ exactly in the midst of which there stands the ‘parables of the kingdom’; If we see from the beginning apart from his childhood narrations, we find the so-called ‘Sermon on the Mountain’( for three chapters of 5-6-7) in which he speaks of What Was Earlier and What Is Now and thus the combining and completion of both Covenants in his person; and then there are his miracles (for two chapters 8-9) and thus the word proclaimed and referred to him is now put into the deed and thus ‘word transformed into action’ of Jesus; and once he has shown who he is and for what he has come, now he starts ‘building his company’ (the church) by calling to himself the Apostles, giving them the instructions and sending them to the mission (for three chapters 10-11-12) and thus everything that was done finds its fulfillment in the ‘realization of the kingdom of God’ (the parables of the 13th chapter); everything is said and done in the view and realization of the kingdom of God.
- The same structure will be seen in the chapters following; from the revelation of the kingdom of God through the parables (chapter 13) Jesus puts them into the daily activities and necessities of life. In this line, the first miracle he does after the parables of the kingdom of God is ‘the feeding of the five thousand’ or the multiplication of the bread and from there he moves ahead how God’s love and mercy, proclaimed and revealed until now through the sermons and parables and the few miracles, is intensified in its ‘task and effect’ and thus entering into the mystery of ‘self-denial’ (chap 16) and ‘being little and small’ (chap 18) by which the real greatness of the follower of Jesus is measured, being ‘forgiving’ in the relations with others and specially with the offenders (chap 19) and thus creating the community of forgiveness and peace, being ‘the vineyards’ (chapter 20), being ‘watchful and waiting’ with the preparation for the good judgment (chapters 21-25) and finally for the complete realization of the saving kingdom in his ‘suffering-death-resurrection’ of Jesus.
- Though it looks little ‘out of the way’ we can still take it as an important departure by which we start walking with Jesus participating in his ‘intensifying work’ of God with his words and deeds and for this reason, it appears to be, the great chapter on the parables of the kingdom of God is set in the exact middle chapter of the Gospel; the central point is the kingdom in view of which and in the following of which every ‘word and action’ of Jesus takes place; from today, as we reflect the chapters following the kingdom, we concentrate more on the ‘mission in the continuation of its realization in the person of Christ’ and on our own call ‘to be partakers’ of this mission;


First Reading: invitation into the ‘eternal alliance’

- Invitation of God:
o God’s invites the people of Israel: it’s first of all, and always, God’s initiative to call his people to himself and to enter into the life which he offers them;
o He invites them – unlike the alliance which he made through Moses on the Mount Sinai, which always falls within the limits of time and space and disappears in the shades of another to come – into the alliance which has its origins from the beginning of the foundation of the world, since everything is made through and for him who is the invisible image of the Father, Jesus (Col 1), which still enters into the ‘history’ and thus into the time and space, but which, without being dissolved into the emptiness, goes back to its eternal origin and thus it remains ‘always’ a ‘eternal alliance’.
- The free entrance:
o The conditions for the entrance into this alliance are not very burdensome; the entrance is free and available for all and we see it in the invitation of God to all, even those who do not have ‘the capacity’ or ‘the proper means’ to enter: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come; buy wine and milk without money and without price” (55:1).
o It is not the question of ‘having’ but a question of ‘making effort’ to enter into the ‘act of alliance’; the banquet or the fellowship of God is not limited and it has no boundaries; to reaches all and it includes all; and thus it is a great and enormous banquet which would be sufficient, ‘still will be remaining’ (Gospel) for all who the invitees;
o Therefore, there is no more an excuse of scarcity of the ‘meals’; there is no more any blame of not being sufficient; No one can escape from this invitation to the abundant life; because, the banquet - the fellowship and the fraternity – is prepared from the beginning of the creation until its final consummation in the end of the creation; therefore, invitation is valid and available ‘ALWAYS AND TO EVERYONE’.
- The two conditions for the alliance:
o Listening to the Word of God: God asks his people to listen to him, not just because of his own glory and omnipotence but for their own life and that’s what he expresses: “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live” (v.3); listening to God makes his people live; life comes from the listening of the Word of God; and we know clearly that even Jesus confirms it when telling that ‘man lives not by bread alone but by the word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Mt 4:4); listening means following ‘every word’ of God which may appear ‘in his laws, in his commands, and in his instructions’, through the prophets, through the kings and through the pastors and more over, through HIS ETERNAL WORD, Jesus Christ;
o Participating in his banquet: “listen carefully to me, and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food” (v.2b). First comes the ‘listening’ to the word of God, not as we like, but with carefulness of not trampling it under our foot, but bearing its ‘cause and effect’ in our lives; then comes ‘eating’ what is good and rich food: God calls his people to have ‘a rich food’; the only good and rich food a man can have is the ‘banquet’ that he himself prepared for his people. God cautions us not to go after what is not remaining and strive for what is not a real bread: “why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (v.2a); every piece of bread we eat is not real bread and does not really satisfy our hunger; we need to know the difference between the ‘bread that perishes’ as Jesus says in the St. John’s Gospel, chapter six, and the ‘bread that remains for ever’ and the ‘living bread’ that gives the life (John 6 – every word the discourse on the bread);


Second Reading: we are victorious only in the love of Christ

- Christ who loves us first:
o St. Paul is very much eager to proclaim the love of God, manifested in Jesus Christ and especially in his death and resurrection; therefore, for Paul, the love of God revealed and realized in Christ stands in the first place and stands as the central point around which ‘all other life and love’ moves and rotates;
o In this way, Paul dedicates many chapters in his epistles to express and lead the people into this love of God and one fine day he tells that, all that we have is nothing if we do not love with the same love that Christ showed us (1Cor 13).
o Therefore, it is God who loved us first; it is Jesus who loved us first; and with this love he has made us his brothers and sisters;
- Nobody and Nothing can separate us from this love:
o Since it is his love which flows in us and since it is he who has injected in us the ‘sperms of life’ in us, this love stays long and in eternity;
o If it were to be our love, it would have limits; it would have failed soon; it would have fallen away and broken apart because when ‘many storms hit our boat’ we immediate sink and drown into the sea of destruction;
o Since it is love of Christ, no storms touch us; no winds make us sink; because in all the ‘storm of life; we are victorious;
o That’s why “hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” cannot separate us from the love of Christ;
- Victory in the love of Christ:
o We are still victorious in all these trials of life, not because we are strong and capable of winning but it is through the love of Christ, which makes us bear and endure and live these trials, that makes us victorious;
o We are, thus, no more slaves to these ‘unavoidable and ever present’ storms of live but we are the ‘victorious soldiers’ who combat them every day and win over them easily with the weapon of love of Christ; therefore, let us be ‘thankful’ and let us be ‘sinking’ in this love of Christ;


Gospel: We are the bread for others

- Miracle of the multiplication of the five bread and two fish:
o This miracle of the multiplication is one and the first of the two that Mathew narrates in his gospel;
o Though we have read, re-read and reflected many a time this miracle, this miracle remains only a miracle written in the Gospel unless we become a miracle of the multiplication;
o We are the ‘five loaves of bread and two fish’ as the community of believers who can feed the ‘multitude of the nations’ with the ‘goodness of bread and the love the wine’ and thus – we are called to be the bread of life for others;
- Two moments of the Mission of Jesus:
o One, the Mission Accomplished: Jesus from the morning of that day till evening does everything for the people; he talks to them and reveals the mystery of God’s love in the words;
o Second, the Mission Commissioned: After a day-long word and work, Jesus, in the evening, asks his disciples, his community of followers those who called to witness his ‘words and actions’ of the kingdom, to continue this mission and thus he says: ‘you give them something to eat’.
- Four steps of Jesus to reach the people and to be with them and to save them:
o We will just exact sentence of the fourteenth verse: “When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.”
o To understand better, let us read the Italian text which is little closer to the Greek translation in which it appears as: “coming down from the boat, he saw a great crowd, felt compassion for them and cured their sick”.
o The difference is clear in the verbs used here: ‘coming down’ (or descending in Italian), ‘seeing’, ‘feeling’ and ‘healing’: now let us analyze these four words and verbs and we should keep in mind that they are not mere words and verbs in the nature of the Gospel and in its Theology but they have a greater and significant meaning:
 Descending from the boat: although English text say that ‘he went ashore’, it is in the Italian text, ‘descending from the boat’: the first step of Jesus reach his people and save them; Jesus comes down from the ‘boat’ of his glory; from the bosom of his Father; from ‘being God himself’; coming down is ‘leaving aside’ all his conditions and all his status and all his ‘being’;
 Seeing the great crowd: the second step of Jesus to reach his people and save them; Jesus descending from his Father Right Side SEES the people and sees the world in the pit of destruction and in the clutches of evil; Jesus comes down first from his glory and sees the pain of the crowds (the difficult and suffering condition of the people) and here, he leaves ‘his being’ for ‘being with the people’;
 Feeling compassion for them: the third step of Jesus to reach his people and to save them; Jesus, who has descended and seen personally the affliction of the people, cannot but feel compassion for them; his mercy is an out-pouring grace that embraces all the people; feeling compassion means ‘being with, for and by the people.’ It is an assurance of ‘continuous presence’ for them in times of well being as well as in times of difficulty; it is to say to them that ‘I am with and for you’ and you can very safely rest in my presence because I will look after all that you need and all that you have to do. Compassion is not only a beautiful word which gives lot of joy in pronouncing it but a wonderful deed that can create marvels in the recipient. Jesus who has given him ‘his being’ for ‘being with the people’ is now proceeds still ahead to ‘being one with them’;
 Curing the sick, or healing the sick: the final step of Jesus, as we see in this particular instance, to reach his people and to save them; the one who has come down to be and to be one with the people, now offers the healing for all the sicknesses of life. The one who feels compassion cannot but extend a healing hand; this is what exactly Jesus did here; he offers salvation not only by the pious words of his proclamation but also by the concrete deeds of his compassion and love for the people;
o From Jesus to the Disciples:
 Now it is the time of disciples to continue the work of Jesus because they are asked to ‘provide the bread themselves’ without looking for some other provider.
 They have done the same and as demanded: they have left their families and all that they have (descending from their safe circles), have seen the needs of the people and specially for the word of God and bread of life (the work of attending to the needs), have felt love and compassion for them (thus decided to stay with them by their living witness) and finally, they have offered them courage and confidence in following their Master, Jesus (and thus spreading the leaves of healing).
 Thus the disciples are called to be:
• Guardians of the flock and the faithful and their community: they have to pay keen attention to the needs of the time and provide them with their ultimate sacrifice of life;
• Intermediaries between Jesus and the community of the believers: they are called to take from Jesus what is His and give them to the people who are waiting and praying for it; they have to build the bridge between the Giver of life and the life of the believers;
o Miracle of multiplication has to be transformed into the daily living event:
 Jesus doesn’t want that his followers to be just passive to all that takes place in their life; he wants them to be active and participative and thus become themselves a miracle for others;
 Jesus doesn’t count the quantity of sources but quality of the spirit; Jesus who is able to multiply five loaves and two fish into an abundant and overflowing grace for the people, can he not multiply and increase the power of testimony though the faithful is small number and only if they move ahead to share their life with others?
 This miracle which has happened once in the life time of Jesus can become a daily living event; it has nourish so many people and it has to satisfy the ‘hunger for the justice and the thirst for the peace’ of many people;

Conclusion:

- We are called to be ‘the living and life giving bread’ to the people around us;
- We are chosen to ‘feed our community with the word and with the bread’ and thus with the ‘preaching of the word of God and with the breaking of the bread’.
- We are called to ‘reach the people and to be with them and to save them’ just after the example of Jesus and it is not so difficult for us if we keep Jesus and his gestures in front of our eyes; we shall do just as he has done:
- Let us always keep in mind the mission he has accomplished in his life and the mission he has entrusted to us in the evening of the day (it was in the evening that the Risen Jesus has given the Spirit to the apostles);
- We have four steps that we can follow in order to be ‘the instruments of love and healing for the people’:
o Descending: we need to come down from the boat of our life; from our confined circle and from our comforts; from our limited mentality and from our walled life;
o Seeing the people: coming down from our houses we have to see the needs of the people; if we do not extend our sigh to observe the difficulties and sufferings of people, our descending from the house does not have any meaning;
o Feeling compassion: we come down and see their need and we feel for them and we feel like staying with them and by their shoulder to support them;
o Healing the sick: we can heal the sick and the discouraged and depressed with the ‘word of comfort and consolation’ – just one kind word, and with the ‘deed of charity and love – just one deed of compassion; thus we can become the healers;
- Then WE BECOME THE MIRACLE OF MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD FOR OTHERS.
- Thus, Let us give the bread for other and let us ourselves become the ‘living bread for others’ and thus the miracle of multiplication becomes multiplied in our life and we become the ‘living miracles’ for those around us.

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

17TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A (1Kings 3:5, 7-12; Rom 8:28-30; Math 13:44-52)

Theme: Let us preserve and safeguard with the great joy the treasure of the life in Christ which we have searched and we have found

Reflections:
- From three Sundays we have been reflecting on the parable of the Kingdom of God and thus we are still in the thirteenth chapter of Mathew;
- Jesus would not have said all the parables in sequence (one after the other); He would have narrated and spoken to the people or sometimes only to the disciples in private there parables; but it was the work of Mathew who has gathered all these parables about the mystery of the kingdom of God and has put them together in one chapter;
- Even the Church has divided this chapter into three/four Sundays, so that, the mystery will be revealed and the kingdom of God will be searched and found easily by the people.
- We still have to ‘give thanks and praise’ to the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth because he has revealed these mysteries of kingdom to the little ones (Alleluia verse – which is being repeated every week from three Sundays) and we should be happy because we are those ‘little ones’, ‘meek and humble’ because we are still ready and prepared to listen and embrace these mysteries of the faith in God and his kingdom which is ‘fulfilled and realized perfectly’ in the person of Jesus Christ;
- Today’s reading are the answers for the two often asked questions:
o What have we to ask for in the prayer? And the answer is found in the first reading of today, in the request/prayer made by Solomon who asks for the discernment;
o What have we to search for in life/ in the Christian life? And the answer is found in the Gospel of today, in the parables of Jesus , of the hidden treasure – the precious diamond – the net that is thrown into the sea, that we have to search for the kingdom of God which is amidst us;

First Reading: discernment to know and choose what is good

- The prayer of Solomon has been pleased by God:
o As we have said above, this prayer could be the answer for anyone who is confused of what to ask in the prayer; every prayer that is raised to God should please him; the only prayer that pleases him will be the ‘offering of glory and praise to him’; the only prayer that reaches God and touches him would be the prayer of ‘doing his will’; we may ask so many things in prayer and we may be of lot of confusion of how to pray; and with this same kind of situation that the disciples asked Jesus ‘teach us how to pray’ and there emerged the great prayer of ‘Our Father’ which is comprised of ‘Praise of his Glory – his Will to be done – his bread/Eucharist for us – his pardon in our pardoning – and finally his Protection’.
o That’s what Solomon asked for; his prayers was NOT for:
 the riches – because he knows of the futility/limitedness of the riches of the world and Jesus confirms this when he says: “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where the moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:19-20; Luke 12:33-34). And the prayer of the Psalmist in the ‘folly of Trust in riches’ (Ps 49:16ff).
 the years – because he knows the inutility and perishing nature of the life on earth and the Psalm confirms it that man can live only few years and after the he has go down into the Hades;
 the life of his enemies – because he knows the enemies can only spoil the outward/exterior life or status but not the inner/interior life or communion with God;
o His prayer IS FOR: the discernment
 Discernment is not a just ‘being able to distinguish and know what is good and what is bad’;
 It is, more than that, as a consequence of knowing it, ‘being able to choose and live what is good’;
 To find out what is bad and choose it one does not need discernment; therefore, the discernment is always a positive ‘path’ to know and choose good and to follow it;
 Solomon has asked for this: to know how to distinguish the good from the bad and to guide the people in the right path;
- Assimilation of the prayer into one’s life:
o We can also make the same prayer; we can also ask for the same gift of wisdom; and we shall try to ‘translate the prayerful words of Solomon’ into our own words; let us take the text/reading (vv. 7-9) and make our own prayer keeping always in mind our ‘status of being baptized and called into the life of communion with God’: “O Lord my God, you have made your servant ‘you son’ (king) in the place of ‘our ancestor’ (my father) David, although I am only a little child ‘who always is in need of spiritual guidance’; I do not know how to go out or come in ‘to your presence’. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted ‘as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore’. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to ‘offer good testimony of life’ (govern) to your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can ‘lead with the spirit of witness and faith’ (govern) this your great people?
o Though it looks very simple and peripheral, the profundity of the personalization of the prayer of Solomon as one’s own is a great task; there he is a ‘king’ and asked discernment to ‘govern’ the people; in the personal realization we are ‘his children’ and we ask for the same ‘understanding and discernment’ to ‘give good example of life and faith’ to the great and numerous people that God has chosen and amidst whom we are placed;
o Therefore, it is not only ‘the play of the words’ as we easily can mean, we can easily laugh at and put aside but it is ‘a task’, which is personal and profound, to seek for God’s guidance and God’s will to be happening in our life; we keep aside (sell all what we have – the gospel) our will and our desires ‘of riches, of many years of life and the destruction of our enemies’ in order to ‘find and chose’ the great will of God (the hidden treasure – the gospel);


Second Reading: being conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus

- The project of God for those who love him:
o God always takes care of those who love him and Paul affirms that God has a special design and project for them and it is: ‘to be conformed to the image of his Son’.
o God has created everything of that is visible and invisible and everything of what is on earth and under the earth and in the heavens, For Him and in View of Him, that is of His Son; therefore, as Paul still says in the letter to Colossians, Jesus is the ‘Invisible Image of God’ (1:15) and in this image that God has made ‘each man and woman’, in his image and in his likeness; therefore, we (all those choose him an love and live for him) are already predestined (God’s will is that we have to be in the conformation of his Son’s image; this does not signify that we do not have to do anything because God has already ‘destined’ it; indeed, it is destined, but with the freedom of the recipient and the believer ‘who has the freedom either to be ‘IN’ it or ‘OUT’ of it) and now the ‘choice’ is ours to be or not to be ‘conformed’.
o Everything else will follow once we ‘choose to be conformed’ with the way of life that God asks us (by discerning his will and following it – the first reading); what follows is that ‘the effect is his call – the consequence of the justice – and the fruit of the glory’ of being his children (v.30);
- Our participation in this project: by searching the ‘hidden treasure of life in Christ’
o The project of God is not in vain or in air but it is present in the concrete situation of our life; it is an event which needs ‘the fulfillment of the will’ of the one who has called us to share in his life;
o The project of God needs a response from those to whom ‘it is projected’ and ‘destined’ and it is we who have to respond to this ‘call of participation’ by loving him because once we love him ‘we keep his commandments’ and we ‘do his will’.
o The participation is not a ‘one time event’ but a ‘continuous process’; therefore, there needs to be always a continuous entering and re-entering (how to go out and come in – the first reading) into the mystery of being conformed to the ‘Image of His Son’;


Gospel: we are the ‘hidden treasure’, the ‘precious pearl’ and the ‘net thrown into the sea’

- Situation of the last three parables of the kingdom of God:
o Mathew pens down the last three parables that has come out from the mouth of Jesus about the kingdom of God; they may be the last three in the order chosen to be put in the thirteenth chapter of Mathew, still, last these three could be like the first three spiritual virtues: faith, hope and love; we do not mean them small and unnoticed just because they are ‘small’ and ‘put at the end’; they express ‘the great value’ of the Christian life and search for the meaning of life;
o Just as we have mentioned in the introduction to this reflection, these parables of Jesus can stand as the answer for the yet another ‘often asked question’ – what have we to search for? And what could be meaning of Christian Life?
o We have to search for the valuable and hidden treasure because it stays long and it gives us ‘nourishment and growth of the relationship with God’ and that’s what Jesus affirms once again when he talks about the treasures in heaven: “but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Mt 6:20) and where your ‘valuable treasure’ is there your ‘precious heart’ will be.
- The meaning of the three parables:
o ‘Hidden Treasure in the Field’:
 We should not forget that the kingdom of God is compared, by Jesus, to the ‘hidden treasure’ which is ‘in the field’ and at the end the man buys not just the hidden treasure but the whole field;
 Therefore, it is a treasure hidden ‘in the field of the faith’; in the midst of the people; in the very soil of creation;
 This ‘hidden treasure’ is ‘the invisible presence of Jesus himself’ in the field of the faith;
 Once ‘he is found’ the man who finds him goes home and with the lot of joy sells and gives away what he has and returns to possess him and here, we can just remember the parable of the ‘rich young man’ (Mathew himself narrates it in Chapter 19:16-30) in which Jesus asks him “go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (v.21) and the young man went away with grief; to possess Jesus, the hidden treasure, we have to forego our possessions;
 The man who found the treasure went and with the great joy he sold out everything in order to possess it; but the young man who wanted to possess the fellowship of Jesus would not be able to give away his possession; went away with grief of not getting the ‘treasure of Jesus’ but could not leave what he has for the ‘gaining of the treasure’;
 What could be the final result if one finds the treasure but could not possess it either by negligence or by avarice of the riches? He loses his soul and “what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” (Mt 16:26), Jesus tells this about those who wanted to have their own life and their own possession and their own security even after ‘finding the treasure’ of life in Christ;
o ‘A Merchant in search’:
 Again, here, the kingdom of God is compared, by Jesus, to the merchant not who is sitting at his house and resting but who is in search; This parable of merchant and the ‘pearl of great value’ found could have two analogies:
 The first one could be: the kingdom in search as the merchant: therefore, the kingdom of God is in search for the precious pearls and these could be and must be ‘we’. We are the precious pearls; the pearl of great value will be either the one who is in perfect communion and fellowship with Jesus or could also be the one ‘who is always ready to return’ to the Father’s house. But the kingdom of God is full of ‘precious pearls’ and we could be ‘the pearl of great value’ found in this kingdom;
 The second one could be: ‘we as the merchants – precious pearls as the different religions – the pearl of great value as the Church: we do not fall into confusion if we compare the Church with the other religions; every human being who is in search for the pearl is like a merchant; every religion as the means of faith and peace could be the precious pearl because it also could contain the portions of the truth of God and dignity of man and integrity of the creation; but only one ‘pearl of great value’ is found by the merchant and we can find only one Christian faith as the pearl of great value for which we can leave aside everything else and have the pearl with ourselves and thus ‘once we find the great value of the Christian faith and doctrine of the Church’ we try all the ways possible to be in it;
o ‘The net thrown into the sea’:
 Again, the kingdom of God, is compared to the net, not which is just lying on the seashore, but the one which is thrown into the sea;
 The net could be the ‘Church which is thrown into the world’ which embraces and invites both the ‘good ones’ to lead still a committed life and the ‘bad ones’ too for the conversion and change of heart;
 The net could be ‘we’ also, because each one of us is called to a net which is thrown into the world of ‘community of faith’ in which we have to ‘with the fraternal love and correction’ embrace all good and bad ones;
 Without judging anyone we have to reach everyone; we shall leave the judgment to God who will separate good ones from bad ones on the day of final harvest; but from our part we have to live a life of fellowship;
- ‘to comprehend’ the parables of Jesus:
o At the end of the day or at the end of discourse Jesus will ask: ‘have you understood all this?’ (v.52):
 To comprehend is a process: as the first step, it is an understanding of the words and language; as the second step, it is an entering into the sense of the words spoken and expressions shown; and as the final step, it is ‘assimilating as our own’ the meaning of the parable;
o Jesus wants us to say: ‘yes’
 We have to say ‘yes, we have understood’; this is the answer that Jesus expects from us; often we say ‘yes’ to the word of God proclaimed; after every reading the reader says, “this is the word of the Lord” and we say “thanks be to God” and in this way we say ‘yes’ to the words we have just heard; after every Gospel reading also the similar response takes place;
 This ‘yes’ of ours should be the sincere one; if we say ‘yes’ without listening to it and understanding it and without deciding to put it into practice, then, we are liars who just ‘say’ but do ‘not do’; and to these people Jesus would repeat: “who listens to my word and keeps it into practice would be worthy of the kingdom of God”.
 From Jesus to each and every saint, including Mary, teach us what is the exact meaning of saying ‘yes’ to the Word of God/Will of God; it is not just listening but living it (the discernment of the first reading); and if needed and demanded giving one’s own life and blood for the will of God; Jesus wants us to say this real and authentic yes;

Conclusion:
- We are to pray for the gift of wisdom and discernment to distinguish and choose what is good as in the great example of Solomon (first reading);
- We are to, in the freedom we are endowed with, choose to be conformed to the image of Jesus and that is the call we are offered and ‘justice and glory’ will follow if we are true to our call (second reading);
- We are to be ‘hidden treasure’, ‘precious pearl’ and the ‘net thrown’ for the people around us; We have to share and sow the seeds of joy to the people amidst whom we are placed;
- Therefore, let us preserve and safeguard with the great joy the treasure of life in Christ which we have found.

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

16th SUNDAY – A (Wis 12:13, 16-19; Rom 8:26-27; Mt 13:23-43)
Theme: We shall remain firm and grow well as the good seeds in the field of the Lord


Reflections:

- Last Sunday we have meditated upon the first parable of the thirteenth chapter of Mathew, in which Jesus using the parable, speaks of good seed that has fallen on the good soil and give proper fruit and we have come to conclusion that ‘we reap/collect only what we sow’: if we sow only thirty percent we reap only thirty, if sixty we reap sixty and if we sow hundred percent by listening and embracing the word/seed of Christ, we reap hundred percent.
- This shows, on the one part, the work of the good Sower who sows the seed abundantly into the camp/field of the world: that means that God has called to himself all the seed and God has destined that all the seed fall in his camp of intimacy with him; it depends on the seed to choose and embrace the kind of ground it desires and in and by which, it deepens itself for its growth; Even though God has destined the good soil of faith/church for its stay and grow, it is always the freedom of the seed to accept and embrace the soil; if it stops itself on the road side it will have its own result; if it stops itself on the rocky ground it will have its minimum and perishing growth; if it stops itself in the bushy thorns it will have its fast growth with the fast disappearance. But the good soil is always OPEN and PROVIDED for all the seed EQUALLY. It is only the choice of the seed which comes from the hands of sower (the one who wills that seed to be fallen into the good ground because no sower sows carelessly and with negligence but some seeds escape his hands little early to search for its own soil and its own joy).
- This shows, on the other part, on the choice that seed makes for its ‘residence and growth’ as we have just said above. Its sprouting, its blossoming and its flourishing completely depend on its free choice; No need of blaming the sower because the Good Sower does all the sowing with the good intention of ‘giving life to each and every seed’ and he doesn’t want to block and impede the ‘free going’ (like that of prodigal son who goes out with his own freedom and the father who respects the freedom of the son) of the seed from his hand or from his presence;
- Therefore, we reap only what we sow; that was the message of the last Sunday and it is the not the intention of repeating what has been said but continuing the message of last Sunday to today and from today to tomorrow, because, we are on the walk towards the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God;
- It’s also the intention of the Church and its liturgy; not that we divide the weeks and read the word of God; but every week is a step for another week; each week is built up on the previous week; therefore, there is a link between each Sunday; Our Liturgy is the process or circle of the mysteries of God and Us; It is with this reason we unite and tie each week with the previous and following ones. Though little strange, we also see today, the Church is asking us to go back and hold the ‘starting point/point of departure’ of these readings and therefore, we find in today’s verse for Alleluia a strange verse than that of today’s gospel. It goes back to remind us of the prayer of praise and thanksgiving of Jesus (Mt 11:25f – the gospel of two weeks back) for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to the little ones.
- In listening to the word of God we have to be always little ones and we are the same: being little, being meek and being humble we embrace what Jesus teaches us in the manner of parables and thus enter into the ‘intimate relationship’ that Jesus prepares between ‘God and Us’ by being mediator himself and that’s why Jesus affirms little ahead: ‘no can come to the Father except through me’. That’s what the Church wants us to continue to do and to enter into the mystery of the kingdom of God;
- Jesus chooses to reveal the secrets of the kingdom of God in the way of parables and therefore, the parables are not simple stories and not simple fables and not even simple messages to be just listened but ‘a means’ of making the listeners enter into the depths of God’s revelation;

First reading: Justice is the measurement

- The book of Wisdom and today’s first reading shows that Our God is God of justice; everything will be measured with the justice fulfilled; therefore, all our words and actions will be judges at the end of the world with the ‘measure of justice’; If we show justice we receive justice and even the contrary is true; if we do not sow the justice we cannot reap justice;

Second Reading: the aid of the Holy Spirit

- We need not worry about our weakness and we can, as believer and followers of Christ, easily fight/overcome the moments of our difficulties, our temptations and our weakness, not by our own effort, but with the ‘help’ of the Holy Spirit who always comes to our aid as St. Paul assures us in today’s second reading;
- Even before we pray and raise our cries to God, the Spirit himself prays and cries for us with God. What we need to do is only ‘heeding’ to his voice and paying ‘attention’ to his cries and finally join with him ‘offer’ our life, weak and fragile, to God.

Gospel reading:
Let us grow into the big tree to give a shelter to the many people who look at us

- The parable of good seed and the weeds:
o Parable as it is:
 It is the second parable that Jesus exposes to his listeners to reveal the mystery of the kingdom of God;
 There is a grain of wheat and also the appearance of weeds, suddenly and one fine morning, as the result of the work of the ‘enemy’ and Jesus never speaks of the ‘devil’ here in this particular account of the parable but speaks of only ‘an enemy’;
 The dialogue between the ‘householder and the slaves (not even servants)’ about the presence of the weeds among wheat (good works that are being fulfilled by the master and thus the slaves ask him the question: Master did not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?: this dialogue again indicates us that ‘the Master’ (God) do not sow ‘bad seed’ or sow badly, but at the same time there is the visible reality of the ‘work of the enemy’;
 The time of the harvest: first there will be the collection of the weeds (the acts of the enemy) to be burnt and then the gathering of the wheat (good works) to the barn.
o The parable explained:
 Jesus explains also this parable; also because he has already explained the first parable of the good sower; now he explains the second one, and this would be last explanation of the parables.
 The place/condition of explanation: it is a noteworthy to see the disciples asking Jesus for the explanation of the parable not immediately and not in the public but ‘little later when they have come home’ and ‘in private’ when they are alone with Jesus: it could be either the disciples are scared/afraid of asking their master anything in public; could be also because of how the crowds would feels about them if they ask for it in the public; in this way, they have shown themselves ‘pretending’ and ‘fearing’; but the reaction of Jesus seems to be normal; without telling anything about this he goes on to explain the parable;
 Though we do not need to explain again here all the Jesus has done, we can notice that, Jesus reveals the mysteries of ‘Son of Man’, ‘the world’, the children of the kingdom, the work of the devil, the judgment as the harvest time, the angels and also the hell ‘the furnace of fire’; After everything has done and fulfilled by the Son of God, all those who remain firm and grow as good seeds will shine in the kingdom of their Father; by ending the explanation by calling the name of the Father, Jesus reaffirms the fruit of embracing the kingdom: ‘shining in the presence of the Father’.
o The answers for the three important question we may ask in life:
 ‘How this evil has entered into the world?’: the first question for which we can find an answer in the verse 28: ‘the enemy has done this’ and little later Jesus indicates that this enemy is the devil and its followers; from the time of the creation there is the reality of evil that always works against the good that God intends; this is an unavoidable situation; we have to always be reminded of this ‘presence and effect’ of the evil that surrounds us to disturb us and thus leading us out of the ‘way we have chosen’, the faith and the church;
 ‘When will this evil/devil take chance in our lives?’: this is the second question which comes out as the result of the first; in the verse 25 Jesus in the mode of the parable gives us an answer, “but while everybody was asleep’. The time of the sleep is the time the devil; we can easily means here, the spiritual sleep in the form of ‘negligence of prayer’ and ‘less attention towards the spiritual life’ and ‘giving less importance to the works of the spirit’; it is the spiritual sleep into which we often fall and it is the perfect time for the devil to enter into us to take the chance of ‘our weakness’ and thus making us fall away from the ‘camp of the Lord’. Here we have to stay awake; St. Paul tells us that we are not the children of the night/darkness but the children of light; we have to keep awake as the children of the day without giving any chance to the night or to the hour of sleep to take control of us; sometimes, all of a sudden, and on the fine morning we find the ‘weed’ in our life and we are disappointed with it and ask so many questions with the worry, how and why this weed/evil has come; we need not wonder at it because we have already an answer for this; it is the work of the enemy/devil in our ‘weak’ time/hour of sleep; but we have the Holy Spirit who comes to our aid in the time of our weakness (second reading); we have to fight back with the strength of the spirit against the weeds that try to press us down in our faith and in our life;
 ‘But how long?’ would be the immediate question that arise; how long this evil show its power? Why God is so silent about it? Why doesn’t eradicate it completely? Why the Church is so silent about the injustices/weeds that are taking place without giving ‘IMMEDIATE’ reaction? From one question flow out many more of this kind; and for all these questions just only one answer is given by Jesus in today’s parable, “Until the Harvest” (v.30); we need not judge God’s silence; we are not capable of understanding his love; we cannot that easily measure his mercy; He is so kind and merciful that he gives ‘one more chance’ for the return of the evil/weed to him; He is God who does not want the death of the sinner but he desires that the sinner comes back with the conversion of the heart; For this He show lot of patience even beyond our measure, human measure;
o Our attitude should be: instead of murmuring and blaming God for his silence, we also learn to be in tune with the mercy of God and thus show patience and mercy even in our own daily situations in which we find ourselves with the same kind of question; and thus our attitude should that of ‘being in reality (first answer), being vigilant (second answer) and being patient and merciful (third answer) and it should be our Christian attitude until the time of harvest (time of judgment according to the justice – firs reading).

- The parable of Mustard Seed: growing into love of God and of neighbors
o The nature of the mustard seed: looks very small but once it is sown it will grow into a big tree so that many birds make their nest in it;
o We are like a mustard seed: we are sown in the camp of the world, in the camp of the church, in the camp of the parish community; once we are sown we cannot remain without any effect; we have to grow and we have to grow into a great tree (good and exemplary life) so that many come under our shades for their struggles and find rest;
 We have to grow vertically; tree becomes big by growing vertically; we have to grow vertically, that is, in the love of God;
 We have to grow horizontally; tree becomes grand with the spreading of its branches horizontally; we have to grow horizontally, that is, in the love of neighbors;

- The parable of the Yeast: becoming contagious of love
o The nature of the yeast: though little it makes the flour leavened by its presence;
o We are called to be ‘Yeast’: we are mixed in the flour of the community/family and of the Church; we have the task of transforming all the flour into the Yeast; our fragrance of love should spread to all; all should become contagious of love;
o It is growing deep and profound and becoming one: while as the mustard seed we grow vertically and horizontally in the love of God and of neighbors, as the Yeast we grow deep and profound so that we, with our loving life, lead people into the life of love;

Conclusion: we are the wheat, mustard seed and the yeast

- To us have been revealed the mysteries of the kingdom specially in the mode of parables through which we become partakers of these mysteries;
- To understand and to accept more, by listening and by embracing, we have to always be little, small, meek and humble;
- We grow always as the good wheat though we find the situations of the ‘weed’ around us;
- We are called to be ‘mustard seed’ to grow and to give life and love to others.
- We are finally the yeast by which all the massive flour is leavened and thus we become contagious, not of enmity but of love;
- Finally, we shall remain firm and grow well as the good seeds in the camp of our Lord.

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

15TH SUNDAY – A: (Is 55, 10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Math 13:1-23)
Theme: We Reap Only What We Sow

Reflection:
- We are in the fifteenth Sunday of the year A and we are nourishing ourselves with the food of the Gospel of Mathew;
- We have entered into the discourse of Jesus on the kingdom of God and the thirteenth chapter is full of parables about the elements/qualities of the kingdom of God;
- The Church calls us today to meditate and assimilate the message of the ‘parable of the Sower’: the intention of the sower; the condition of the field; and the sprouting of the seed and the percentage of the fruit;
- And the end we can only say that we reap only what we sow


First Reading:
- This the splendid oracle of the Lord which comes as an ending part of the Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55); it celebrates the efficacy and the fertile force of the word of God; the prophet takes the image of the ‘agricultural sphere’ and thus enters into the mind of the listeners very easily because in his historical context most of them were workers of the land, who depend mostly on the mercy of the rains and snows; the prophet makes a figure of a ‘complete cycle of process’ of relations between the divine word proclaimed and the humanity which received it.
- The Nature and the Mission of the rain and the snow:
o They come from above
o They go deep down into the earth
o They make the soil creative and potent
o They return again in the form of a vapor
- The word that God speaks
o Com from above that is from the mouth of the Lord
o It enters into the ears/heart – life of each listener
o It produces its effect of growth and
o It makes its return journey to the original destiny
- The analogy is very clear: the potency and the purpose of the Word that God Speaks and Sends: the mystery and mission of Jesus, the Word of/with/in God.
- Isaiah, the prophet of hope, again speaks of the salvation that will be effected with the descending, entering into the world, and ascending of Messiah from God, for God and to God; He produces the life in his listeners and in his followers;
- The word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (v.11):
o We can also find the presence and the power of the Trinity: God, the Father who Speaks; God, the Son is the Word; God, the Spirit is the Potency;
o In the very act of creation and in the courses of the events in the redemptive design of God for man is process is seen: God spoke, the word came out and it power, the Spirit, worked/fulfilled the purpose for which it was sent: for example, the light: God said that there be light and there was light.
o It the same process that God has followed in all his marvelous action for the people of Israel: from the calling of Abraham (God called, the word has come out, and the power has made Abraham to accept and follow it) to the deliverance of the people of Israel from the slavery of the Egypt; it is the same process that He puts in the mouth of the prophet to speak out to the people.
o In the reciprocal art of ‘embracing’ the word, speaking and listening, the whole life of man is contained and it is for this reason Jesus also says that “Man lives not by bread alone but by the word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Mt 4:4);

The Second Reading:
- The only destiny of man is the ‘future glory’ of being the children of God;
o Being the sons of God is not a simply a pious and holy word or invitation, but it has a Nature and it has a Mission;
o The Nature of being sons of God is: accepting and embracing the will of God;
o The Mission of being sons of God is: living for it till the end;
o This nature and mission has to be completed/accomplished (like that of rain and snow) in spite of the sufferings that press us and suppress us, because we have the hope as Paul holds that these sufferings of the present moment are not to be compared to the future glory that will be revealed to/in us (v.18);
- Both the creation and the man are groaning for the revelation:
o Man has lost his dignity of being ‘with the Lord’ with his fall into sin and thus buying the death, because the wage of sin is the death, and finally lost the status of being the children of God;
o Creation was brought down to the ‘falling status’ and to the level of death by the disobedience of man;
o Now they both of groaning to be born again, like woman in labor, to become new creation and new man and that will be realized ‘in the embracing and accepting’ of the Word (Jesus Christ) that has come down from God and has accomplished the purpose of salvation;

Gospel Reading:
- The meaning of parables:
o Parable which signifies ‘comparison’ in Greek, is a method of using the imaginations and fables to indicate the ‘hidden reality’ and which in turn demands very often the explanations;
o It is not a simple means to make the people understand the difficult things but more than that, it is a presentation of a religious mystery which goes beyond the human knowledge and the presentation under the form of enigmas.
o It provokes in the listeners, their curiosity, their research, their task and thus it makes the discernment between the believers and those who refuse the faith.
- The necessity of parables:
o The appeal of Jesus to the people to see, to understand, to observe and to listen which is not so easy many times; there is a need for a sincere search;
o When needed and asked Jesus explains them the meaning and to those who ask him with the good will to understand and in turn they enter into the familiarity and intimacy with the kingdom of God and others close themselves outside and in the darkness of ignorance.
- The destiny/task of the parables:
o There is the clear contrast between ‘them’ and ‘you’: reading the parable cannot keep us neutral. There is a need to make an option to invest not only one’s intelligence but one’s whole life.
o That’s why even Mathew keeps this chapter in the centre of his Gospel (13th chapter); it was preceded by ‘the true family of Jesus’ (12:46-50) and followed by ‘the people of Nazareth refusing Jesus’ (13:54-58); thus it is a chapter which makes the clear-cut difference between the ‘poor in spirit’ who accept to enter into the mystery of the salvation of God and the ‘hard-hearted’ who reject it. It open the drama of the division in the people of Israel in the matters of Jesus;
- The parable of the Sower:
o ‘going out’: Jesus goes out to meet the people to sow in them the seeds of the kingdom of God; the farmer has to go out into the fields to sow; if he sits at home nothing happens and nothing moves ahead and so ‘going out’ of one’s own house is the first step to sow:
 That’s why Jesus tells again that if we want to be worthy of God’s kingdom we have to leave what is ours – our home, our parents, our relatives and also our own possessions;
 That’s what Jesus himself has done: He has ‘come out’ of his Glorious House, the Father’s Bosom, the heavens in order to fulfill God’s will and to lead people to the path of salvation;
 Like a sower, he has come out of his own residence of glory and he is spreading the seeds of joy and peace amidst the people, the field that he has chosen for the irrigation of redemption.
o ‘the house’: in the gospel of Mathew there is many reference to the ‘house’ but it is very difficult to point out what exactly Jesus means about the house:
 is it of Jesus, is it of Peter or is it of someone else; for Jesus the house is a ‘place of reunion and place of teaching’ to the disciples;
 surely, ‘the son of man has no place to lay his head’ (Mt 8:20); but it does not mean that Jesus was wandering and living only in the open place or on the streets; Jesus had his own moments of rest under the fixed houses.
o The sower: Mathew talks about ‘the’ sower, not the ‘one’ sower; he intends to indicate one precise and specific person; the sower does not throw voluntarily the seeds on the path, on the rocky ground or among the thorns; he fulfills his task of sowing as a good worker/good farmer; it all depends on the readiness/preparedness of the receiver;
o Listen who has ears: this is the mode of bringing an attention in relation to the preceding parable and the listeners of Jesus should embrace his word as a good soil which embraces the seed when it is sowed;
- ‘You – They’: the opposition underlines the mysterious aspect of the gift of God; to all is given the same project but some – YOU – listen to it and accept it, and others – THEY – neglect it and reject it. Some, the twelve and the receivers, receive abundantly and profoundly the gift of God; others, the only-listeners, receive only the form and its image and not the true meaning and therefore, what they also will be removed from them.
- Understand: the seed is the word of the kingdom; the soil is the heart of man with all his grades of embracing/accepting it. It is the word which may become a fruit or barren but the man who receives it who is influenced by the Satan and all the situations that he is surrounded by.
- The four types of soil:
o On the roadside: it indicates the lack of profundity because of the superficial and lazy responses; the beauty and attractions of the world along side of the road are very much provoking that the mind is blocked to think what is good and right and the heart is far way from understanding what is truth; man falls into the slavery of the beauty of the world forgetting the beauty of soul and salvation;
o On the rocky ground: it indicates the trials and the attacks that come on the way which hardens the heart to believe in the truth; the various distractions and preoccupations in life makes the listener of the word to neglect it or forget it immediately after its reception;
o Among the thorns: it indicates the passions, the possessions, the illusions of the world which suppress the goodness of man and block all the channels of divine inspirations; finally the sin kills the life (Rom 7:5); the problems and the sufferings take the great importance in life. We give more time and more energy for the unimportant and unnecessary passions. This kills and hinders our opportunities to understand and assimilate the word that is listened.
o Good Soil: it is known by the good fruits that it bears (7, 16-20), but not immediately but in the time of reaping only (21,34). There are different percentages, not because of the merits of the listeners, but because of the deeds he fulfills and because of the faith that he manifests and because of the energy he puts in to make it grow (like that of the parable of the talents).

Conclusion:
- Christ is the ‘GREAT WORD’ of God who has been sown into every part of the world and who listens to him and who receives him will bear the fruit: fruit of salvation;
- We are called to be ‘the word of God’ in our daily lives: as Christians we are sent out/we are sown into the community/society and into the world; we have to sow the seeds into all types of grounds (religions/cultures/languages); we have to sow the seed and whether it is received or rejected will depend on it final product of the fruits;
- Powerful Weapon: A word can create peace/goodness/kindness and therefore, a community of fraternity and solidarity; a word can also pave the way to the misunderstanding, fight and war; a word is a such a powerful weapon; it all depend on how we makes use of the word and what word ‘come out’ from our mouth.
- Attention in Talking: the tongue has no bone; it simply moves however it wants; it simply puts out whatever it desires; we, as Christians, have to be attentive when making the ‘word come out’ of our mouth; it can makes us friends of many or it can also make us enemies of many; we have take great care in letting the word (our speaking) out; Good seed is always fruitful; Good word is always powerful;
- Let us be good word of God for all those who are around us because the truth is: ‘we reap only what we sow’.

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

14TH SUNDAY – YEAR A: (Zach 9:9-10; Rom 9:9,11-13; Math 11:25-30)
Theme: Let us prefer and choose the littleness, meekness and humility and we shall be full of peace and rest

Reflection:
- After entering into the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year with the invocation of the Name of the Trinity (Trinity Sunday) and with the Spiritual Nutrition (The Holy Body and Blood of Christ), now the Church offers us the Path that every Christian has to CHOOSE.
- The Way that Christ shows is quite contrary to that of the world; He does not just say and show the way by words but by his own life; from the very moment of his earthly existence, from that of incarnation, He has taken the path of humility, meekness and littleness. With the humility He has taken the human form, with the littleness He has taken the form of a servant (Incarnation), with the meekness He has entered into Jerusalem (the Passion and Death). In this way, His whole life of Jesus has become the Way, the Truth and the Life for the world and humanity to enter into the life of glory and joy.
- The Christians are called to lead a life but in the way that Christ himself paved and showed and that’s what the Church indicates us today.

First Reading: dominion of peace
- The Prophecy of Zachariah:
o The Savior of Israel who is to come is not like any other king of the their time, but a king who is the announcer and the constructor of the peace;
o He comes not on the horse as the victorious king of the world having the sword in his hands, but comes on the donkey with the humility of the servant and with the weapon of peace;
o In this way, there will be the domain not of the war and bloodshed, but of the peace and fraternity;
o This domain of peace is not confined to the particular country or region or race or culture but it would spread out to the ends of the earth;
- The deeds of the Savior of Israel (v.10), therefore, are:
o He will break down all the chariots: chariots which are symbols of power and authority;
o He will throw off the war horses: horses which stand for the readiness for fight and war;
o He will cut off the battle bow: bow that stand for the bloodshed and death;
o He will command/order (not just say) the peace to all the nations: command stands for his authority as the maker and bringer of the peace;
- The result of his coming will be the joy of his people and shouting aloud of his kingdom (v.9).
- The spiritual message of his coming is:
o To be at peace without giving any chance to quarrels, misunderstandings, pride and thus for division; thus to be the bearers of the togetherness and harmony;
o To be as servants with the virtues of meekness and humility which in turn are not a symbol of weakness but ‘sharing’ in the life of the Savior who has made himself small and meek, choosing the symbol of donkey;
o To be the destroyers of the weapons of enmity, means of division and occasions of fight and war; in this way, we have to fight always against the ‘evil/malice powers’ which try to hold us in its hands;

Second Reading: dominion of the Spirit
- Life in the flesh:
o The eighth chapter of the letter to the Romans is a letter which is elevated theologically; in today’s passage we note, the operation/action/function of the divine principle that is infused into us from the moment of our baptism; now this divine principle is always work against the anti-salvific force of the ‘flesh’ and that is, of sin.
o Paul often speaks of this ‘anti-spiritual force’ of the flesh:
 He talks about the desires of the flesh to which man can very easily become slave and to which man is always called to be vigilant and combating it with faith and works of the ‘day’.
 He talks about the ‘thorn in the flesh’, which is, the pain in the option-making for the works and weakness of the body/flesh;
 Though, this fleshy nature in the integrity of human person is always at operation, he can realize and enjoy in his spiritual strength he gains with the faith in the Spirit of Jesus Christ; for this reason, he says that ‘when I am weak then I am strong’; what he means is this: when I am weak in the flesh, in the weakness, I do not cling on it completely and absolutely because it’s not my destiny; it only helps me to know what I am now and today and to reach with carefulness and with little more firm faith to the afterward and to tomorrow; this gives me hope to look for the force of the Spirit which is already infused in me with the embrace of faith and which makes me strong to walk ahead in spite of the desires of the flesh; from this very common situation of fleshy power we can hope for the ‘power’ of the Spirit because we are called to be with and in the Spirit;
- Life in the Spirit:
o Though we have amidst us the thorns of desires in the flesh, we are given the Spirit of Christ and therefore, we are no more the slaves of flesh but we are under the dominion of the Spirit;
o This Spirit who has raised Jesus from the death, therefore, led him to the resurrection, now gives us also the life leading us out from the deeds and deathly operations of the flesh, “if you live according to the flesh, you will die” (v.13).
o We are in the Spirit because of the Spirit that dwells in us; the Spirit has a residence; the Spirit has a dwelling place; the Spirit has a place to live in: ‘that is we’: the Spirit lives in us; that why, somewhere else, Paul says that “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy and you are that temple” (1Cor 3:16-17).
o As long as this Spirit lives in us we have the ‘desire of the spirit’ that dominate us; we have the power of the spirit that fills us and strengthens us; and thus we have life in us and we can see the operations of the spirit that make us live amidst the ceaseless evil powers: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (v.13).
- Life of Christ in us:
o Christ has won over the deeds and desires of the flesh and he has put an end to these unfathomable conditions of the flesh by nailing to the cross and by dying in the flesh, offering his spirit to his Father; Therefore, the life in the flesh, has a permanent death/ eternal condemnation in the bodily death of Christ on the cross; therefore, we have a savior who supports us to fight against the desires of the flesh or life in the flesh;
o With the mystery of Christ, which includes merits of his incarnation, passion and resurrection, we have life in the Spirit because he has poured out his spirit upon us; the whole of being human has become integral with the divine element that is infused into us by Christ: the Holy Spirit; As long as we allow this Spirit to dwell in us and to act in us we live and we have life in fullness: that is life in the Spirit;
o Once we give up the ‘life in the flesh’ with the contemplation of the cross and death of Christ, and once we take up the ‘life of the spirit’ with the joyful living of the hope of resurrection of Christ, we live for Christ: We have Life in Christ. We live for Christ and with Christ: “All those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit” (Gal 5:24-25).

Gospel: dominion of humility and meekness
- Three stanzas of the hymn:
o Praise-benediction-thanksgiving (v. 25): the mystery of the Kingdom of God, that is, the salvific project of God in the person of Christ, is revealed to the humble and the poor just because the person of Jesus himself is humble and poor;
o Revelation of intimacy between Father and the Son (v.26-27): the total and reciprocal knowledge that exists and that runs internally between the Father and the Son; Moses was hoping to see the face of God with his eyes but the response of God was immediate: “you cannot see my face because no man can see mi and stay alive” (Ex 33:20); the person of Jesus says that the total intimacy with the Father is an intimacy revealed to him who believes in Him.
o An appeal and an invitation for all (v.28-30): it is the call of Jesus to the weak and the poor because they offer themselves to follow Jesus who is the true and definitive wisdom. The image of ‘yoke’ is used to indicate the law that the Lord has imposed on Israel; Jesus proposes it again, but with the sense little more ‘sweet’, the yoke of love, instead of yoke of law. The rapport with God is no more connected with the fear and death but with the filial affection and response.
- The exegesis of the words and the passage:
o This joyful hymn is one of the few prayers of Jesus which are written in the New Testament (we can see: John 11:41-42; 17:1-26; the words of Jesus in the Gethsemane and on the cross in the different Gospels). Here we penetrate into the central action of thanksgiving of Jesus; here the relation of Jesus to the Father on the one side and his relation to the little ones on the other, are very closely connected; it is penned down by Mathew immediately after the ‘lament’ of Jesus over the city of Galilee and it is on the contrary to it that Jesus makes this ‘act of thanks’. It signifies that: if some reject and thus go away from the way/word of the Lord, others accept and embrace and thus make Jesus rejoice;
o At that time (25): this formula is proper to Mathew (we can find it here; and 12:1; 14:1) and this serves as a starting point for many readings of the Gospel in the Liturgy. Though it looks very simple word on the outside appearance, its’ original Greek word indicates ‘the important and privileged moment’ (16:3; 24:45; 26:18). Here this mode of addressing underlines the importance of the moment in which Jesus turns to the Father and expresses some of the essential aspects of his mission. Another word in the same verse is: I thank you: literally ‘I confess you’; ‘I praise you’; ‘I proclaim you’. This is the solemn term that is used to affirm the glory of the Lord (Phil 2:11; Rom 14:11; 15:9); The word ‘Father’ appears five times in three verses; when Jesus keeps himself in front of God, everything is focalized on his filial relation to him. ‘Heaven and Earth’: the prayer that Jesus makes, first of all, is of the universal dominion of God; the Risen Christ will participate in that dominion (28:18). The last word of the verse is: ‘infants’: the paradox of God of the Bible is in the fact that his omnipotence is presented to the humble and small (Ps 113:5-7). The Bible usually calls them ‘the poor’ (5:3). They are closer to Christ, little more intellectuals, capable of understanding him because he is similar to them, as a humble and poor. Jesus gives thanks for this choosing of God which correspond his preferences and his mission completely.
o It pleased you (26): this Greek word ‘eudokia’, used also in Lk 2:14 and in Eph 1:5, is the world of Fatherly Goodness of God, which is the centre of his design of love.
o Knowing (27): The intimate relation between the Father and the Son and the affirmation that the Son is the only way towards the Father.
o Weary and who carry heavy burdens (28): it is not because of the heaviness of work but of the laws and rules that the Pharisees impose on the people (23:4). ‘I will give you rest’: the letter to the Hebrews (3:11; 4:1-5) develops the idea of ‘rest’ offered by God to his: it comes at the entrance into the Promised Land (Ps 95:11) and the rest of God the Creator (Gen 2:2). Therefore, it is derived from the great peace that God prepared for men in spite of all the difficulties on their way; not a rest which is superficial and passing;
o Yoke (29): At times, the word used to remind the Jewish law and the burden of its prescriptions (Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1). Even Jesus imposes a ‘yoke’ on his, but none other than the heaviness of the requirements of love; it is given to his listeners and followers by Jesus so that they carry on these requirements (Mt 28:20; 1Jn 5:3-4). ‘Gentle and humble in heart’: these two adjectives, gentle and humble, remind of ‘the poor’ of the Old Testament (5:3). In front of the masters, the Pharisees, who ‘say and not do’ (23:3), Jesus is the Master who gives an example and walks till the end with those who have followed him (28:20). He is a good shepherd who ‘makes them to rest’, who ‘refreshes’ them, who ‘guides’ them and who ‘gives the security’ (Ps 23:2-4).
- The dominion of the littleness-meekness-humbleness:
o Failure of the ‘selfish wisdom’ and ‘selfish intelligence’:
 Wisdom is the gift of the Holy Spirit: In fact, it is the first gift of the Spirit; there is natural wisdom and supernatural wisdom. Those who have knowledge they can know many things and they understand various events and they are naturally wise; there are also those who have spiritual wisdom who can comprehend the events and words with the process of speculation and theology and even more with the gift of the intuition that comes from God and they are supernaturally wise;
 Intelligence is also the gift of the Holy Spirit: In fact, it is the second gift of the Spirit; it is the capacity to ‘penetrate’ or to ‘read profoundly’ of the things, collecting the truth that is hidden. There is also the possibility of ‘understanding internally’ the divine mysteries if god reveals them;
 But Jesus speaks of the things ‘hidden’ from the wise and intelligent; if wisdom and intelligent are the gift of the Spirit why God hides from them these things? Jesus speaks of the Pharisees who, indeed, had the gift of wisdom to understand the truth of God but they did not heed to it because of they have believed in their own capacity excluding the need of the divine revelation; they, indeed, had the gift of intelligence to ‘penetrate themselves into the mystery of God’s revelation’; but they believed too much in their own capability to know them and to understand them and finally they failed to understand; because of this ‘auto-sufficiency’ and ‘auto-capacity’ which the Pharisees manifest through their words and actions (because they say and do not do), God has hidden these things from them.
o Victory of the ‘gentleness and meekness:
 Finally, God has chosen these ‘small and poor’ people to reveal his hidden wisdom and intelligence and the mysteries of his salvation.
 The ‘little ones’ of whom Jesus speaks, are not the children, nor the new born nor the less intelligent; they have not age difference; they are just ‘the humble ones’ because they are ones who can offer themselves to God with the total trust and complete commitment;
 The only mediator of this revelation of God’s mysteries to these little and poor ones is Jesus himself. He is and can be the Only One because He has made ‘meek’ and ‘humble’ to reach these people and to carry them into the loving bosom of the Father because these poor and little ones accept him and embrace him as their Master, who says and who does, unlike their masters of the time, Pharisees.
o Passage from the Oppression to the Rest:
 Jesus talks about the oppressed when talks about the Father which apparently seems be not connected;
 Jesus here underlines that the real oppression is ‘not the heaviness of the law’ but ‘the ignorance of God’; the knowledge of God will be the ‘repose’ and ‘rest’; and when one knows God and follows him he will be at peace.
o ‘the yoke and taking up of it:
 Jesus invites his listeners to take up the yoke, but, ‘my yoke’ : “take my yoke upon you…..for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”;
 There is no other yoke than ‘taking the fatigue of faith’; there is no other yoke than ‘leaving one’s own self and taking up his cross’; there is no other yoke than ‘renouncing the proper securities of earthly knowledge, which are always uncertain and limited, and to be open to the divine revelation; these seems to be mysterious and difficult but at the end they are ‘easy and light’.

Conclusion:
- In spite of worldly progress of the knowledge and science which create so much of ‘curiosity and attraction’ in man, Jesus, today, invites us, his believers and followers, to be open ‘with all the mind, with all the heart, with all the strength’ to the mysteries he reveals through his word proclaimed and lived ‘in and through his people’ the Church;
- We are called to be ‘little, small, meek and humble’ in contrast to the ‘great, arrogant and proud’ and the difference will be manifested ‘in the listening, in the accepting and in the embracing’ of the yoke ‘the love’ of Jesus;
- Let us prefer and choose the littleness, meekness and humility and we shall be full of peace and rest.