By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
July 9, 2023: 14th Sunday in Ordinary time
Zechariah 9: 9-10; Romans 8: 9,11-13; Matthew 11: 25-30
Do we know God? That is a very complicated question, isn’t it? Anyone, needless to be humble, enough to be realistic, would say, knowing God is not a human task. It is almost impossible. That is why God comes to our aid, with God’s grace! It is sheer grace that we get to know God. Yes, it is always a “given”! Only by God’s grace, and God’s self revelation do we get to know God, despite our inability and our limitedness. This is a grandiose gift, but at the same time a risky terrain. What is the risk?
Being a grace and a supernatural gift, in the process of knowing God, we might sometimes settle for what is a limited understanding of God, if not an erroneous understanding. Attributed to the philosopher Xenophanes is the saying which goes: “if cattle or horses had hands and could draw, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle.” The danger pointed out here is, if we are not sincerely attentive to God, we might paint God the way we are, the way we think and the way we wish – instead of getting to know who God really is, and what God reveals Godself as.
This is one challenge that Jesus had during his life time – and God continues to have even now – to make people understand who God really is. People who thought that they knew everything about God, that they were very close to God and closer than anybody else, that they were true authorities on God-talk, actually did not know God. Instead, those who were, and who are, simple and innocent, unsophisticated and humble, find God much closer and much clearer to themselves. That is the way of the Lord and that is why Jesus glorifies the Father today: I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth!
It is imperative to know God, but know God as God reveals, not in the way we wish to imagine God. At times we create our own god, which could be far away from what God truly is, and what God reveals Godself as. Jesus’ primay aim within the incarnational design was to reveal God to us and to receive that revelation fully, the Word traces us a way, a passage, an itinerary that Jesus intended to teach us. This itinerary, to know God, can be presented in these three terms:
From power to peace:
I bless you Father, God of heaven and earth… the words of Jesus in the Gospel portrays a fundamental understanding of God – the God of heaven and earth, the God Almighty! But look at this God almighty… God renounced that mightiness, made Godself so vulnerable in the event of incarnation and came to live amidst us – to show us how much God loved us. That is why the Prophet Zechariah, in the first reading speaks of a God who is victorious and triumphant, but humble and riding on a donkey, a God who banishes chariots, horses and bows of war, a God who proclaims peace for the nations!
God prefers peace to power! God chooses compassion instead of glory, as the psalm says. That is the God we are introduced to, by Jesus the Christ – a God who is compassionate, loving, caring and peace-giving, and not power mongering, competitive, egocentred, self promoting, exploitative and arrogant. If we have to truly know God, we need to move from a power-oriented thinking to a peace-centred mentality. Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God.
From death to life:
There is a constant struggle between the unspiritual and the Spiritual, not just out there in the world, but within us every day. When we feel tempted, angered, tired or anxious, there is this conflict within us – what to choose the easy way of the unspiritual or the long-winded way of the Spiritual. That is a choice between death and life – death, not in the sense of the end of life, but in the sense of it absence. Many choose to die, way long before they are buried, a culture of death that keeps threatening the humanity.
There is a tendency and a propaganda in the world today, to make everything easy. Why should we think of a consequence that might come after a few decades? Why should we think of remote effects on persons whom we may or may not know? Why worry about a so-called unknown future, while we have the concrete presence right in our hands? These are the modes of thinking propagated by the culture of death. Are we going to give into these? If we wish really to know God, we would dare choose life; we would choose to move from death to life! But that is not as easily done as said. With all the mindblowing campaigns around, it could be absolutely tiresome. And that is why the next passage that Jesus suggests…
From fatigue to freedom:
When we find it tiresome to choose life, when we find it hard to choose peace, when we find it exhausting to know and understand God, Jesus says: come to me, and I shall give you rest! learn from me, for I am meek and humble. It is in this meekness and humility, that you will find God and Godliness, for God has chosen the meek and the humble! Those who pride in power and authoritarianism, those who gloat in glory and pomp, those who crave for luxury and splendour, unfortunately are far from God, far from knowing God. And that is a very serious warning that Jesus gives us!
What we need to have is the rest, the calm, the serenity, the peace, the freedom that the Lord alone can give! Not in a frenetic search or an anxious scampering that we would know or discover God, because it is God who reveals… it is in the calmness and stillness that we can know God. Isn’t that the meaning of what the psalm 46 tells us – be still and know that I am God! Come to me, I will give you rest, and learn from my meekness who God is – that is the invitation of Christ today. To know God not though our fatigue, but in freedom. It might sound logical to say, as soon as I know God, I will surrender myself to God. But the truth is other way around, when we surrender ourselves in freedom to God, we begin to know God.
It is only in our choice for a life giving lifestyle, our preference for peace and our free submission to God, we shall know God, know God as God reveals.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.