COME AND SHARE IN HIS REVELATION

HOMILY FOR THE 14^TH SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME OF THE YEAR, A

 

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

The heart, not the head, is the home of the Gospel. It is not intelligence and brilliance which shuts out; it is pride. It is not stupidity which admits; it is humility. A man may be as wise as anything we can imagine, but if he has no humility, innocence and a childlike heart, he shuts himself out from the kingdom of God. We are all witnesses to the manner many of the world’s so-called intellectuals repudiate religion and God. We witness how it appears that the more one gets knowledge the more he sees no sense in the very thing that makes the highest sense; how he sees the piety for God as a business of those who are poor. The greatest undoing of this era seems to me to be how the rich and the intelligentia of the society consider religion, or particularly Christianity as meant for the materially poor in such a manner that when they are exhorted to be near the Church so as to be near God, they quickly think that they are being invited for material donations. It is the heart that is the home of the gospel, not the head, not money, and not power. If only we all could understand that we are poor in our different ways, then we may learn to grow humbler as we grow in material possession which is that which the world regards as success.

The Gospel of today (Matt 11:25-30) strikes the dagger point of what I have been struggling to say in the above paragraph. Realizing that we are all poor, regardless of the fact that some see themselves as above the Gospel, Jesus invites us to share in his revelation. Actually the whole verses of the Gospel can be read from the viewpoint of revelation. The episode (vv.25-30 can be broken into three distinct but inseparable parts: 

a) VV.25-26: Thanksgiving for revelation

b) V.27: Content of the revelation

c) VV.28-30: Invitation to revelation

Part A

Jesus’ declaration was one of thanksgiving to God who has hidden the contents of revelation from the wise and learned, and has revealed them to little children. The questions are: who are the wise and learned? And who are the little children? 

On the one hand, the wise and the learned were those religious leaders and the scribes who saw themselves as the lords and masters of the law, and thus are unteacheable. For them, no one understands the dictates of God more than them. For them, they are the interpreters of the mind of God. For them, they alone are the saints while others are the sinners. For them, they alone can acquit or condemn any sinner. They would think that if God could decide to reveal himself to the world, the revelation must come through them. They are blind to the fact that Jesus is the messiah or the mediator between God and man.  In Matthew 23:4, the scribes and the Pharisees are known to be the people who tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their fingers.

We can have such individuals in our society today. This group comprises the self-righteous people who see themselves as the elects of God as others are the reprobates. For these people, others are sinners. Their knowledge of God is the ultimate. Nothing can you say about God counts for them. They can secede and be founders of their own churches because they do not see the Church as an umbrella and the great teacher of the faith. They would ask you in their minds: who are you to tell us about God; you who are a sinner? Such persons come to such having the spirit of division and segregation. They would not want to associate with a brother or sister because they have seen him/her take a bottle of Gulder. They would easily condemn that member of theirs who comes late for meeting without knowing the reason for the lateness. They are quick to condemn because in their minds, they are perfect. They only believe in themselves. Their greatest undoing is pride, selfishness and arrogance.

On the other hand, the little children are the disciples of Jesus. They are those who follow the Lord in sincerity and truthfulness. They are the ones as read in Matt. 13:10-11, who have been revealed the secrets of the kingdom of God. Jesus told Peter upon his confession of the Messiahship of Christ in Ceaserea Philippi: it is not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. Jesus makes it vivid that his disciples were the very first choice of God in revelation. He calls them little children in John 13:33. They are those babes and infants who the Lord has given the strength to destroy the enemy and the avenger in Psalms 8:2. They are those children crying out hosanna to the son of David in Matthew 21:16.

We still have such little children today. The little children today are those who do not see themselves as the only people that exist. They believe that they are because others are. They are intelligent yet humble. They are pious yet accommodating. They are holy, yet are friends of sinners. They do not segregate and condemn without discerning properly the situation. They see light in others. For them, they know nothing about God, and are zealous to learn and know more. In their zeal, just like the apostles, they are told more secrets of the kingdom. Even when they are gifted and talented, they remain with the Church and use their talents for the good of the Church. They work for unity and not disunity. Their greatest strength is humility in service.

Part B

What is the content of the Revelation? The first content is that all authority belongs to Christ. The second is that Christ is the sole mediator and revealer of God to men. No one can go the Father except through the Christ. The people were blind to God’s will of saving mankind. About these wise and learned, the scripture is clear: they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts (Eph. 4:18). They were ignorant that Jesus is of God; that he has received all things from God; that he is the revealer and that he is the saviour. I and the Father are one (John 10:30).  In the claim of no one knows the Father, Jesus asserts that he alone is the unique access of the knowledge and love of the Father. The love of the Father is to lift our burdens and make us energetic again for our journey of faith.

Part C

This part concerns the invitation to revelation. Jesus invites us to come and share in his revelation. Jesus in the invitation come to me speaks as wisdom personified.

The first question is: who is to come? Those who are to come are the weary and the burdened, the person who is exhausted and despaired, extremely tired and weighed down, ready to stop and collapse. Some of the things that exhaust us are: work (we are overburdened with too much to do), worldliness and carnality (fleshly pleasure), sin and guilt and the power of both, money and material possession and the unsatisfying spirit of both, fame and its emptiness, power and its loneliness, the rules and regulations that we strive so rigidly to keep.

The second question is: why should the over-burdened come to Christ? It is very simple. Christ will give them rest. No person has gone so far for Christ to inject his rest into him – only if we learn to call upon Christ. If anyone thirsts, let him go to Jesus and drink (John 7:37).

The third question is: what are the conditions for receiving this rest? There is only one condition: a person must simply come to Christ. Christ is the answer. Burdens make us weak, sluggish and dirty. They make people to avoid us less because of the tendency in those who are burdened to call others for help. Only Jesus can lift every burden without feeling any pains. He alone is eager to lift the burdens immediately we call on him.

In all, God has the power to render superfluous all those experiences that make us weird or afraid. God makes an option for the poor. Every one of us is poor in different ways. Some are poor intellectually, others are poor materially, others psychologically, others spiritually, and yet others in particularly situations that incapacitate us. We have the Christian obligation of going to Jesus whenever we feel despaired. There should be no form of pride in us, because all of us are actually the poor and the little children who partake of God’s revelation. We must strive to make ourselves little by imbibing the virtue of humility which is a virtue that uplifts and elevates. Pride goes before a fall. And when you think and pride your knowledge you lose sight of fresh ones, and deterioration sets in. But when you are open to gain knowledge, you grow more. The more you see yourself successful on earth, the more you learn to be humble and listen. The proud man does not listen, but the wise man listens and adds to what he knows.

May this virtue of humility reign in our human society, in our Church and in our hearts. Amen. Do have a blessed week ahead. God bless you.