GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 1OTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 12 JUNE 2026, THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Matthew 11:25-30.  In Chapter 11 of Matthew’s gospel, Mark brings together a variety of insights into Jesus’ identity.  He also records how various kinds of people responded to him.  Some truly believe that Jesus is Messiah and Son of God.  Some think he is simply a prophet speaking words from God.  Others reject him, and the Pharisees are eventually convinced that he is in league with Satan, and so they decide he must die.

In today’s reading from the end of that chapter, we have the great privilege of hearing one of Jesus’ praying to the Father, which we hear only twice more in Matthew’s gospel.  He thanks the Father for revealing the Truth to ‘infants,’ those new to the faith, the simple hearted and faithful.  But he also thanks the Father for not doing so to the ‘wise and intelligent,’ those who make of faith and religion an intellectual issue.  Truly, faith in Jesus is an affair of the heart, not of the brain and logic.  He goes on to thank the Father for ‘all things having been handed over to him by the Father,’ speaking yet again  of his intimate relation to the Father.  In Jewish tradition it was note all common to address God as Father; it is Jesus who does so as his Son.  For many it probably seemed outrageous to imply such intimacy with God.  It is likely for this reason, among others, that some rejected Jesus and his teaching.  Jesus goes on to say that the Father has revealed all things to him, and that Jesus is the one who reveals the Father to those who are chosen to receive such revelation.

Finally, Jesus addresses al those who are gathered to hear him, saying, ‘come to me all who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.’  He invites those who have accepted him in their hearts (not just their heads) to take upon themselves Jesus’ ‘yoke and learn from him.’  The burden of faith and discipline in Jesus’ way is far lighter and easier to bear than the troubles of the world.  The ‘rest’ which Jesus offers is a great Sabbath rest, a holy rest, more restful than any the world can offer.  In Jesus we find a compassion far beyond any we may have known, ‘the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding,’ as St Paul calls it (Philippians 4:7), a divine peace, a peace far beyond any experience of peace we have ever had.