First Reading (Zechariah 9: 9-10)
Thus says the LORD: Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass. He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; the warrior's bow shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 145: 1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14)
Refrain: I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
1) I will extol you, O my God and King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. (Refrain:)
2) The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.
The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. (Refrain:)
3) Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord, and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might. (Refrain:)
4) The Lord is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works.
The Lord lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. (Refrain:)
Second Reading (Romans 8: 9, 11-13)
Brothers and sisters: You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
At that time Jesus exclaimed: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."
"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."
(Copyright 1970, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2001 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. Washington D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Copyright 1970, 1997, 1998 Contraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
The English translation of some Psalm responses, some Alleluia and Gospel verses and the Lenten Gospel Acclamations, some Summaries, and the Titles and Conclusion of the Readings, from the Lectionary for Mass copyright 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc., Washington D.C. All rights reserved.
The poetic English translation of the sequences of the Roman Missal are taken from the Roman Missal approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States, copyright 1964 by the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission of ICEL.)
In listening to today's readings, I was struck by the fact that the first reading is normally associated with Palm Sunday. So the question could easily be raised as to why it was chosen by the lectionary planners for today's liturgy. I believe the answer lies in the fact that this passage from Zechariah portrays our Lord coming into Jerusalem not in royal splendor and power, but "meek, and riding on a colt". In our gospel passage, our Lord tells his disciples "Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." The Greek word for "meek" is praus, which also means "gentle, humble, considerate or unassuming".
There is also some more background of interest here, specifically dealing with the word "yoke". First of all, yokes were the pieces of wood which were placed on the shoulders of oxen for pulling a plow. Before the yokes were made, the oxen were brought in and measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the oxen were brought back to have the yoke tried on once again. Only then was the yoke finished. Because of these precautions, it would fit well, and not gall the neck of the ox. In other words, the yoke was tailor-made to fit each ox. (1)
But this is not the only meaning of the word. For the Israelite of our Lord's time, the word "yoke" meant to "enter into submission to". Thus, there was the yoke of the Law and the yoke of the commandments. Elsewhere in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says of the Scribes and Pharisees: "They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders" (Mt. 23:4). For the orthodox Jew of our Lord's time, religion was a thing of burdens.
And there is one more point to be made here. The Greek word for yoke is "zugos" which means "the yoke of any burden", such as the yoke of slavery. But there is another Greek word which has this word as its root: su-zugos, which means "brother, companion or comrade", in other words, someone to help us carry our burden. But it is interesting to note that when this word refers to a woman, it means "wife".
I know that you are all probably saying to yourselves by now that this is all well and good, but what about us? What does all this have to do with us here and now? Well, in reviewing this passage with you, I have neglected three little words which are pivotal here: "learn from me". Several weeks ago, we discussed how we all would like to be remembered after we have left this earth. It is the same when we remember Christ. After all, as Christians, that is what we are trying to do: to incorporate (a word that comes from the Latin roots "in" and "corpus" which means to "take into our bodies"), the qualities of Christ. Once we have done this, we next try to emulate, or reflect, these qualities externally in our interactions with others. So what are some of these qualities? Earlier in Matthew's gospel, we heard about the compassion which he felt for the crowds that followed him, a quality which we might look at once again in a few weeks. Then we saw how we need to set aside some time for prayer, just as Christ himself did. [And last week we looked at his kindness.]
This week, we have seen the need to be "gentle and humble of heart" and to be "yoked with Christ". You see, in our lives, there are two options: we can either do things by ourselves and bear the burdens of life alone or we can share those burdens with another person, either a friend or a spouse. The benefits of "sharing the load" can be seen in nature. For example, it has been found that one horse can pull two tons by itself. That means two horses working separately will be able to pull four tons, two tons per horse. But it has been discovered that when two horses are teamed together, they can pull not four tons, but eighteen tons. This is an example of what is called "synergy", another English word which comes from the Greek word "synergos", which means to work together. Synergy allows us to accomplish much more with the help of others than all of us would have accomplished working on our own.
When we share the load, then the burden is not as heavy as it would have been had we borne it by ourselves. I'm sure that if you talked to single parents, of which there are all too many these days, they would tell you that the most difficult thing about raising children alone, other than adequately providing for them, is not having anyone else around to share in the decision making, someone who could help them determine if they were doing the right thing.
But there is still one thing missing in this equation, even where we have another person with whom we can share our burdens. We also need to take those burdens to Christ. And here is where another three little words from our gospel come into play: "come to me". Although Christ is fully aware of what is going on in our lives at all times, we often do not acknowledge his presence. What we need to do is to tell him our troubles, not so much for his information, but for our own benefit, to bring to our consciousness the fact that Christ must be present in our lives.
I came across the following prayer for newlyweds which I believe has a lot to say to all of us with respect to this week's gospel passage. And for those of you who have been married for a while, perhaps it is a reminder of what you first promised to each other those many years ago.
- Dear God,
Please make of our relationship a great and holy adventure.
May our joining be a sacred space.
May the two of us find rest here, a haven for our souls.
Remove from us any temptation to judge one another or to direct one another.
We surrender to You our conflicts and our burdens.
We know You are our Answer and our rock.
Help us to not forget.
Bring us together in heart and mind as well as body.
Remove from us the temptation to criticize or be cruel.
May we not be tempted by fantasies and projections, but guide us in the ways of holiness.
Save us from darkness.
May this relationship be a burst of light.
May it be a fount of love and wisdom for us, for our family, for our community, for our world.
May this bond be a channel for Your love and healing, a vehicle of Your grace and power.
As lessons come and challenges grow, let us not be tempted to forsake each other.
Let us always remember that in each other we have the most beautiful woman, the most beautiful man, the strongest one, the sacred one in whose arms we are repaired.
May we remain young in this relationship.
May we grow wise in this relationship.
Bring us what You desire for us, and show us how You would have us be.
Thank you, dear God, you who are the cement between us.
Thank You for this love. (2)
Whether we are married or single, and whether we are dealing with friend or spouse, we need to always remember to surrender our burdens to Christ, too. We must constantly acknowledge his presence in our lives and remember that, although he tells us to take on his burdens, he is the one who has first taken on our burdens, especially our burden of sin. So, no matter where we have been and what we have done in our lives, we need only turn to him and he will relieve us of that burden and remain steadfast in his promise of eternal life.
We must always remember that the zugos, or yoke, which he brings is lighter than the zugos of life's burdens which we would bear alone, because he has become our suzugos, or companion, on the journey of life. All we have to do is ask for his help.
1. from the Gospel of Matthew, copyright 1975 by William Barclay. St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland. Used with permission.
2. "Prayer for Couples", copyright 1998 by Marianne Williamson from Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul, pp. 126-127, copyright 1999 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Mark and Chrissy Donnelly, and Barbara De Angelis. Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL.
(Copyright 2017 by the Spirit through Deacon Sil Galvan, with a little help from the friends noted above. Permission is freely granted for oral use in whole or in part in local communities. For permission to use in written form, please contact the human intermediary at deaconsil@comcast.net )
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (A)
Lord Jesus, you raise us to life through the power of the Spirit. Lord, have mercy.
Christ Jesus, you are gentle and humble of heart. Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Lord, have mercy.
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (A)
Celebrant: Christ invites all of those who labor and are heavy burdened to come to him and find peace and rest. Therefore, confident that he will intercede for us, we bring our prayers and petitions to the Father.
Deacon/Lector: Our response is: "Lord, hear our prayer".
That the leaders of the Church may proclaim God's kindness and love for all humanity in word and deed, we pray to the Lord.
That the leaders of the nations of the world will do all in their power to bring peace on earth and end the war in Ukraine, we pray to the Lord.
That the sick, those who are grieving the loss of a loved one and all who find life burdensome, will find comfort and peace in their faith, we pray to the Lord.
That all those on vacation may find refreshment and renewal of mind and body, heart and soul, we pray to the Lord.
That all care givers may find strength and comfort in Christ, we pray to the Lord.
For all of the intentions we hold in our hearts and which we now recall in silence. (Pause) For all of these intentions, we pray to the Lord.
Celebrant: Gracious Father, your Son has carried our burden of sin and brought us to the gates of eternal life. Grant us the grace of your Spirit to help others to carry life's burdens. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.