FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A) - 3 July 2011
SIMPLE PEOPLE
Matthew 11, 25-30
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| Rev.Fr. Valentine de Souza SJ |
José Antonio Pagola (Translated By Fr.Valentine de Souza SJ)
Jesus did not have a problem with simple people. The people easily empathized with him. Those simple folk who spent their days working to help their families survive, received with joy his message of a God who is a Father, concerned for all his children, above all, for the most forgotten.
The most vulnerable sought his blessing: with Jesus they felt closest to God. Many sick, influenced by his faith in a good God, regained their faith in the heavenly Father. Women sensed that God must love his sons and daughters, as Jesus said, with a mother's deeply felt love.
The way he spoke about God, the way he lived and the way he dealt with the poorest and the most needy people, they felt he proclaimed a God they needed. In Jesus they experienced the saving closeness of the Father.
The attitude of the "experts" was different. What filled the simple people with joy filled them with indignation. The teachers of the Law could not understand that Jesus would be so concerned about suffering and so little about the fulfillment of Sabbath obligations. The religious leaders of Jerusalem resented Jesus: the "Father" God of whom Jesus spoke was not Good News, but a threat to their religion.
For Jesus such a different reaction to his message was not to be taken lightly. The Father for him is the best news. So he gives thanks in the hearing of all: "I give thanks, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the experts and have revealed them to the simple people. Yes, Father, this is what you thought best."
Even today simple people understand the Gospel better than anybody else. They have no problem empathizing with Jesus. It is easier to reveal the Father to them than to the "experts" in religion. When they hear Jesus spoken of, they trust him spontaneously.
Today practically everything practical and important is decided in the Church without involving the simple people and to their exclusion. It is difficult, however, that anything new or good for the future of Christianity will be accomplished without taking them into account. It is the simple people who will lead us towards a more evangelical Church – not the theologians and not religious leaders.
We have to rediscover the evangelical potential that's hidden in the faithful. Many simple Christians desire and seek to live their attachment to Christ more in conformity with the Gospel, in a Church renewed by the Spirit of Jesus. They are demanding more of the Gospel and less doctrine from us. They are asking for essentials, not trivialities.
Spread the faith of simple people
Source: URL of José Antonio Pagola's Buenas Noticias Web site
Website for Spanish original and translations: www.eclesalia.net
Jose Antonio Pagola, vgentza@euskalnet.net , San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, Spain.
English Transation by (Valentine) Vally de Souza S.J. vallydesouza@jesuits.net, Mandal, Gujarat , India.
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