HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF 15TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME.
THEME: My yoke is easy and my burden light.
BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA.
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Exodus 3:13-20
Psalm 104:1,5,8-9,24-27
Matthew 11:28-30
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
GREEN
*INTRODUCTION*
Good morning dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Thursday of week 15 in Ordinary Time, Year A.
*FROM OUR FIRST READING*
In today’s first reading, Moses asks God for his name. It is a bold request. In the biblical tradition, someone’s name reveals their core identity. In his reply to Moses’ request, God reveals his name to be ‘I am’ – ‘This is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I am” has sent me to you’. The name ‘I am’ suggests God’s presence to his people, and the larger context of the passage indicates that it is God’s saving and liberating presence that is to the fore, ‘I have resolved to bring you out of Egypt’. Jesus is the fullest revelation of God in human form and in John’s gospel, in particular, he often speaks of himself as ‘I am’, as in ‘before Abraham was, I am’.
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*FROM OUR GOSPEL READING*
In our gospel reading, Jesus addresses himself to those who were burdened. We can all find ourselves burdened for many reasons. We may feel overworked; some relationship in our lives may have become a burden over time; we may struggle with ill health occasionally. We can be left feeling burdened for all kinds of reasons. In the gospel reading, Jesus addresses his words to those who felt burdened by the demands of the Jewish Law.
*CONCLUSION*
Jesus issues a very personal invitation to the burdened, ‘come to me… learn from me’. Jesus does not invite people to a new code but to an intimate relationship with himself, comparable to his intimate relationship with God. It is in allowing Jesus to draw us to himself that we will come to share in his ‘rest’. ‘Rest’ here is not the absence of activity. It suggests the ‘restful waters’ of Psalm 23, to which the Lord leads us to revive our drooping spirits. As we draw close to the Lord, our spirits are revived and we are empowered to live by his teaching, which, while demanding, will be experienced as ‘light’.
The Lord be with You!.
Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA.
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