20260705 THE STRENGTH TO REVEAL CHRIST IN OUR LIFE
05 July 2026, Sunday, 14th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Zechariah 9:9-10 |
See now, your king comes humbly to you
The Lord says this:
Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion!
Shout with gladness, daughter of Jerusalem!
See now, your king comes to you;
he is victorious, he is triumphant,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will banish chariots from Ephraim
and horses from Jerusalem;
the bow of war will be banished.
He will proclaim peace for the nations.
His empire shall stretch from sea to sea,
from the River to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 144(145):1-2,8-11,13b-14 |
I will bless your name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
I will give you glory, O God my king,
I will bless your name for ever.
I will bless you day after day
and praise your name for ever.
I will bless your name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.
I will bless your name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
and declare your might, O God.
I will bless your name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
The Lord supports all who fall
and raises all who are bowed down.
I will bless your name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
Second reading |
Romans 8:9,11-13 |
If by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body, you will live
Your interests are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him, and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.
So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.
Gospel Acclamation | Mt11:25 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 11:25-30 |
You have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children
Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘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.’
THE STRENGTH TO REVEAL CHRIST IN OUR LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ZEC 9:9-10; ROM 8:9.11-13; MATT 11:25-30]
In the Gospel, Jesus spoke of His mission to reveal the Father to us all. Jesus exclaimed, “Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Indeed, at the end of His ministry, in His priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to His Father, “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 17:25) This explains why Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (Jn 14:6-7)
But it was not easy, even for Jesus, to reveal His Father to us. He faced a great deal of opposition from the religious leaders and the Jewish people themselves. The first obstacle was pride. Jesus said to them, “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you.” (Jn 5:39-42) Indeed, because we seek our own glory, many refuse to believe in Jesus. Without a real love for God, we will always find reasons and excuses not to believe in Him. So the Lord said, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.”
Only those who are humble can welcome the Lord into their lives. When we lack humility, we mistakenly think we know a lot or that we have the answers to everything in life simply because we have studied philosophy, science, and technology. This is where we go wrong, as we begin to glory in ourselves. St. Paul warns us about this in his letter to the Romans: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.” (Rom 1:18-21)
Secondly, some do not believe in God because of the heavy burdens they are carrying in life. They feel that God has abandoned them and that life is unfair. Some are sick and suffering from terminal illnesses, some face severe financial difficulties, and others are unemployed or facing overwhelming challenges in their jobs. Some deal with family difficulties, particularly with a spouse, or with wayward children who have fallen into bad company or illegal activities. When the weight of our responsibilities becomes too overwhelming and stressful, we feel like giving up.
However, the burdens the Gospel speaks about are not necessarily just our daily chores and responsibilities; they also refer to the yoke of the law — that is, the moral demands of the Gospel. Indeed, some Catholics cannot accept the hard teachings of Christ. Moral demands like the indissolubility of marriage, marriage being strictly between a man and a woman, living a life of chastity, honesty, charity, non-violence, and forgiveness, as well as giving ourselves in humble service to others, are considered heavy burdens by modern men and women. Consequently, the Gospel is rejected because it does not align with individualistic preferences.
Thirdly, some are under the bondage of sin, especially sins of the flesh and worldly desires. This is what St. Paul exhorts us against: “So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” When we allow sin to control our lives, there is no peace. “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21)
When we focus solely on worldly and unspiritual things, we miss out on the greater aspects of life, such as true friendship, sharing love and joy, praying, worshipping God, and serving others. The spiritual things of this world are intangible, but they are far more important than merely material and physical things because they satisfy the soul and not just the body.
How, then, do we find peace in our lives in the midst of these struggles and demands? The first reading from Zechariah tells us to welcome the humble king into our lives; we need to give our hearts to the Lord. “The Lord says this: Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout with gladness, daughter of Jerusalem! See now, your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will banish chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished. He will proclaim peace for the nations.” The Lord comes to us as a humble king who wants to win our hearts over to His. We must be ready to welcome the King into our hearts if we want to enter the Kingdom of God. Indeed, we must make Jesus the centre of our lives and take the Gospel as our guiding principle for how we should live each day, how we should conduct ourselves with our fellow human beings, and how we should serve and love God.
Jesus invites us in the Gospel: “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.” The yoke of Jesus is light if we carry it with Him, because He carries the burdens of life in love. The Lord does not always take our burdens away from us, but He does give us the strength to bear them by expanding our capacity to love. Life is not just about carrying our burdens or trying to rigidly observe the commandments of God; it is about doing all these things with love and joy. While faith makes all things possible, love makes all things easy.
When we welcome the Lord into our lives by adopting His mind and heart, we invite the Spirit of Jesus to live within us. This is what it means to be yoked with Jesus: journeying with Him side by side, learning from Him, and sharing in His work. St. Paul wrote, “Your interests are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to him, and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.”
We should, therefore, pray for the gift of humility. Only with this gift can we be like Jesus, who came among the poor and humble when He was born, choosing the poor and disadvantaged to be His instruments of salvation. Jesus chose the Twelve, who were not among the elite of society, to be His apostles. In the final analysis, the Christian life and its happiness are not about what we can achieve for God through our own strength, but about allowing Christ to work through us. Basking in His love, we will find the strength to battle against our weaknesses, the temptations of sin, and our sufferings in times of tribulation. We will live a righteous life because Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit. Most of all, by living out our Christian life with joy, love, and peace during times of trial, we will bear witness to Christ and the Father’s love in our world.
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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