Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 5, 2026
Sr. Nina Vandamme, SNDdeN
Matthew 11: 25-30
Before Jesus speaks, he turns to his Father. Addressing the Father from his deep relationship with Him, He praises the Father for the entire creation. At the same time, he provides the reason for “why” … He has hidden these things (the message of the Gospel?) from the wise and learned. And at the same he places the “little ones” over against the former. Why does he make this distinction? We can ask: “Who” are the wise and the learned? Are they those who presume they are wise and learned and think they have nothing to learn from anyone? Or are “the wise and learned” those who are aware of their limited insights? Examples of these can be found in our contemporary world, but I can also perhaps look at myself and ask myself which group I belong to. The world has wise and learned people who “are” truly wise, but there are also the “wise and learned” who live “in the delusion that they are wise.” I suspect that Jesus is talking about the latter. They are so full of themselves that only the “inflated ego” moves into the foreground with power and wealth. Their hearts are closed because they are too full of themselves.
It is in that sense that I understand Jesus praising the Father for turning to that other group of wise and learned people who are aware that they themselves are little. And it is precisely because of that that they can be included among the little ones. They are people who are open, admit that they do not possess all wisdom but are truly searching for connection. They worry about their fellow human beings who are weak. At the same time, they understand that people need each other – “even need God.”
Jesus praises his Father’s actions and makes it clear that, in His mission, He Himself has “received” everything from the Father. Is this not that we should be regularly cultivating in ourselves? Jesus does not inflate his own ego but is aware that He has received everything. What is the case with my awareness of having received everything?
And this is the intense unity between Father and Son: no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son reveals the Father. “Everything has been given” into the hands of the Son.
And then, rising up out of Jesus’ heart comes the pressing and inviting request: “Come to me, all of you. Whoever you are, let go of everything weighing you down, all those questions in your life … leave them behind, and come rest in Me.” Our hectic society has pushed the notion of rest into the background, as if it doesn’t matter. And yet … “Come and rest, and I will ease your burden.” Isn’t that what we all want? Don’t we all want to move through life with a certain lightness and a spring in our step? And then Jesus invites us with these words: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” If we accept Jesus’ teaching and receive it into our hearts, then this experience teaches us that this yoke is light. A quiet courage arises in us that makes us humble, gives us a sense that however much this is a daily task for each of us, through which we act as each other’s equals and do not need to place ourselves above the other and find rest in Him. And Jesus adds: “Then you will find rest for your soul, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In which category of wise and learned do I see myself? Do I dare include myself among the little ones who need God’s help?
When do I rest? Or do I remain the “eternal workhorse” that always goes further, always driven by ….?
Do I dare to take up Jesus’ yoke, and regularly find rest in Him?
Matthew 11: 25-30
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.”
Meet Sister Nina Vandamme, SNDdeN
