20250717 CARRYING THE YOKE OF GOD’S LOVE PRESUPPOSES WE KNOW HIM
17 July 2025, Thursday, 15th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Exodus 3:13-20 |
God reveals his name to Moses
Moses, hearing the voice of God coming from the middle of the bush, said to him, ‘I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. This,’ he added, ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.”’ And God also said to Moses, ‘You are to say to the sons of Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come.
‘Go and gather the elders of Israel together and tell them, “The Lord, the God of your fathers, has appeared to me, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; and he has said to me: I have visited you and seen all that the Egyptians are doing to you. And so I have resolved to bring you up out of Egypt where you are oppressed, into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land where milk and honey flow.” They will listen to your words, and with the elders of Israel you are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to meet us. Give us leave, then, to make a three days’ journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the Lord our God.” For myself, knowing that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless he is forced by a mighty hand, I shall show my power and strike Egypt with all the wonders I am going to work there. After this he will let you go.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 104(105):1,5,8-9,24-27 |
The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or
Alleluia!
Give thanks to the Lord, tell his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, the judgements he spoke.
The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or
Alleluia!
He remembers his covenant for ever,
his promise for a thousand generations,
the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or
Alleluia!
He gave his people increase;
he made them stronger than their foes,
whose hearts he turned to hate his people
and to deal deceitfully with his servants.
The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or
Alleluia!
Then he sent Moses his servant
and Aaron the man he had chosen.
Through them he showed his marvels
and his wonders in the country of Ham.
The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Ps129:5 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count on his word.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt11:28 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 11:28-30 |
My yoke is easy and my burden light
Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’
CARRYING THE YOKE OF GOD’S LOVE PRESUPPOSES WE KNOW HIM
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EX 3:13-20; PS 105:1,5,8-9,24-27; MT 11:28-30]
We all have our burdens to carry. No one is exempt from suffering in life. Some of these burdens come from our responsibility to those under our care, be they our children, the elderly, or those in our offices and community. Whether we are leaders or just workers, we have our worries, anxieties, and difficulties carrying out our work. Often, anxiety and concern for our loved ones can overwhelm us, especially if they have difficulties. But not all burdens come from work and responsibility. They could come from the sins of our past. We live in guilt and shame. We are fearful of being found out for our crimes and our misconduct. Even for those who have not done anything wrong, the struggles against sins could itself be a real tension because of the temptations in the world. Indeed, sometimes emotional guilt could be more debilitating than physical pain. Finally, some of us are carrying spiritual pain that comes from the burden of having a wrong conception of God because we see God as a punishing God. We feel that we are not worthy of His love and God is never pleased with us. We feel the need to seek God’s approval in all things, always worrying that we have not done enough. We doubt the unconditional love and mercy of God in our life.
What is the cause of this suffering? Simply because we do not know God enough to trust that He will be with us in our struggles and in our suffering. Earlier on in the Gospel, Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will’ (Mt 11:25f). There are two things to be considered before we can deal with today’s Gospel text, when our Lord said to His disciples. ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’
Before we can find rest in the Lord and shoulder His yoke and learn from Him, we must first understand that knowing God is not mere intellectual knowledge gained from scriptural and theological studies. Knowing the mind and heart of God goes beyond intellectual knowledge; it is about having a personal relationship with the Lord. This is why only the humble of heart can know the heart and mind of the Father, not those who are supposedly wise and intelligent. Humility of heart is the gateway to enter the heart of the Father. When one is humble and docile, he or she is willing to learn and grow in love. Being humble calls for vulnerability and openness of heart and mind to what we read, hear, and see. Only those who recognize their limitations and inadequacy can open themselves to the mind and heart of God.
In the first reading, Moses was humble. He was conscious of his inadequacy when he was called to liberate the Hebrews. When the Lord commanded him from the middle of the bush to go and say to the sons of Israel, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, he asked, ‘But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?’ Moses was clear that he would not be able to confidently speak to the people that he had received a divine revelation when he did not know the name of God. How would he vouch for the credibility of his message? And the Lord said to Moses, “‘I Am who I Am. This is what you must say to the sons of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.'” This God is in the present and the source of all existence. He is beyond all human conception of Him. This explains why the name of God is never pronounced in the Bible because it is unpronounceable, as His name is comprised of consonants without vowels, YHWH, and translated officially as The Lord.
Nevertheless, the Lord gave some inkling as to His divine nature when He told Moses to ‘say to the sons of Israel, “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come.’ In other words, this God is a God who is always with us, being the I AM, but also a faithful God to the ancestors of Israel. He is the same God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshipped. This God who came to deliver the sons of Israel is faithful to His promises to their fathers. So they could be confident that this God would also deliver them from their enemies. The responsorial psalm says, ‘The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.’
There is another reason why Moses asked for the name of God. To know His name means to share in His power, knowledge, and His will. Knowing the name of God is to know His heart and mind. This means there is intimacy. When we call a person by name, it means that there is an interpersonal relationship. And if the name we use for another person is a familiar and intimate name, it shows a deeper intimacy. Otherwise, we address a person formally when we do not know the person well. We address a person by his title and his family name. We should use the personal name only when we are familiar with that person.
So, do we know God well enough to place our trust in Him? We can only know God personally through Christ alone. The Lord said, ‘All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’ (Mt 11:27). Only Jesus knows the heart and mind of the Father. Jesus said, ‘If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father’ (Jn 10:37f). Jesus acts like the Father in everything He does. ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished’ (Jn 5:19f). Finally, in the Priestly prayer, the Lord prayed, ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:25f).
Indeed, if Jesus was obedient unto death, it is because He was one with the Father in mind, heart, and will. As He said before He entered into His passion, ‘I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way’ (Jn 14:30f). Jesus was always doing the Father’s will because He loves us as much as the Father loves us. At the Last Supper, St. John wrote, ‘Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end’ (Jn 13:1). Jesus loved us as much as His Father. In another text in Romans, we read about the Father’s love: ‘Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:7f).
Truly, the Good News is that God understands us. He feels with us. He told Moses how He felt with the suffering of His people and how He shared their pain and misery. ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey’ (Ex 3:7f). So we are not alone. He is with us in our struggles. Within this context, we can appreciate why Jesus invites us to come to Him. He said, ‘Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’ Indeed, our pain becomes lighter when we suffer with the spirit of Jesus – out of love for His Father, in union with Him, and out of love for His people, in solidarity with them and their sufferings. When we suffer for love and in love, such crosses are bearable and bring life – not just to those for whom we suffer, but to ourselves.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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