Thursday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 20, 2023

Matthew 11, 28-30

Jesus said: “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.”

“Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.”  The Greek conjunction translated here as “for” more usually means “that”, so: “Learn from me, that I am meek and humble of heart.”  This makes more sense, since otherwise the Lord seems to say that we should learn from him “because” he is meek and humble of heart, which begs the questions, Why is being meek and humble of heart good?  What incentive is there to learn from one who possesses these qualities?  Neither the Law nor the Prophets teach that we should be meek and lowly of heart in dealing with our fellow humans.  Instead, we are to learn that the Lord is meek and humble of heart and because we love him we see these as good qualities for us to imitate for everyone desires to become like the one he or she loves.  

Further, the Lord Jesus shows us what meekness and lowliness of heart mean so that we are not left to hazy and perhaps conflicting definitions.  Among the countless examples of his meekness, we can think about his Incarnation and his Passion, particularly his dealing with the high priests and with Pilate.  In his Incarnation we behold the Almighty Son of the eternal Father, begotten of him before all ages, before whom the angels in all their majesty wonder in awe, join himself to a human nature to grow within a human womb for nine months, and then to be born in an ignominious place within his own creation, wrapped in dirty swaddling clothes, and laid in a piece of furniture out of which animals eat.  He did this willingly, eagerly, in obedience to the Father and out of his love for men and women who had devoted themselves to sin from the beginning, even knowing that the mass of these ungrateful creatures would reject him and some would kill him.  He does not shy away from offering his life for them and calls them “Satan” who would prevent him from doing so.  He resolutely makes himself subject to his Father and carries out his command.  Nor does he complain or threaten.  He does not call seven legions of angels to destroy his enemies.  He does not strike anyone dead for mistreating him, but even heals the slave of the high priest when he suffers a wound during his arrest.  He, the one before whom the demons quail, endures the insults of his own high priests and the insolence of the pagan secular power.  Nor does he punish the criminal crucified with him who blasphemes him, or ignore the plaintive prayer of the one who repents.  This is true meekness: carrying out the will of God without thought of self.

We observe his lowliness of heart in his great love for each human person, no matter how lowly their state or miserable their condition.  He touches lepers, the untouchable.  He touches the dead and raises them by the hand.  He refuses no one who comes to him to be cured, even those who show themselves ungrateful to him for saving their lives, as in the case of the nine lepers (cf. Luke 17, 12-17).  He runs himself ragged for three years through Israel so that everyone might have the chance to hear him, meet him, know him, and repent.  He does not restrict himself only to the Jews but goes to great trouble to expel demons from a Gentile in another country, and heeds the pleas of a Phoenician woman to cast out a demon from her daughter.  He lets the unclean touch him so that they might be cured.  He associates with the lowest classes of people: prostitutes and extortionist tax collectors in order to convert them.  Nor does he disdain to seek the salvation of those who have made themselves his mortal enemies, but discourses with them, challenges them, and gives proof of his divinity to them, as they he owed this to them.

Meek and humble of heart, he yearns for our salvation as well and offers to share his yoke — his life — with us so that we may attain it.