05 July 2026 – 14th Sunday, (A)
05 July 2026 – 14th Sunday, (A)
(1) Zechariah 9:9-10
Their king-Messiah will come humbly, riding on a donkey
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial: Psalm 144:1-2, 8-11, 13-14
R./: I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
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. (R./)
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. (R./)
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. (R./)
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. (R./)
(2) Romans 8:9-13
By the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we live the new life of grace
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh- for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30
Gentle and humble in heart; his yoke is easy and his burden light
At that time 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. 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. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Becoming like children
“Put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee” was the refrain of a popular Gospel song some years back. Putting your hand in somebody else’s is a gesture of intimacy, which is very characteristic children with their parents. To a loving father or mother a child will give its hand unquestioningly, with complete trust. Holding his or her father’s hand there is nowhere the child will not venture. It is not only willing to be led, but positively wants to be brought somewhere. Somewhere in the growing up process we outgrow our dependency on our parents, and having lost the need for their guidance, even God can become remote for us. Only those who are children at heart can fully understand what Jesus tells us about God — that God reveals Himself to “mere children.”
Growing up means ceasing to be dependent. We exchange a child’s dependence on people for an adult’s dependence on things, like money, alcohol, success and influence. But these props are notoriously fickle and the adult world is often plagued by stress and anxiety. Our props may provide temporary relief but can still leave us — as Jesus puts it — “labouring and burdened;” labouring under illusions of grandeur and burdened with unrealistic targets. The heaviest load we have to carry is that of our own unfulfilled ambitions, the burden of our bruised egos. Only a return to humility can restore our lost innocence and our lost paradise., that honest humility that accepts our creature-status, our status as children before God. To enjoy the peace of Christ we must “put our hand in the hand of the man from Galilee’, who guides us along life’s journey and helps us to find the way home.
‘Come to me’, he says, ‘all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest.’ In spite of all our problems, we trust him when he says, my yoke is easy and my burden light.
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Key Message:
When Jesus and you carry together, there is nothing too heavy!!
Homily:
Testimony: I had met two sick persons who were bedridden, who were well taken care of by their children. One of them thanked God saying that God has sent Angels to take care of him. He said that God is always taking care of him. He felt the nearness of God. His burden seemed light for him. The other sick person was complaining about all the pains without any thanks for God and the sweet people taking care of him. He was so bitter and down with no energy. For similar sickness, one of them felt their burden heavy and another the burden light. When we have nearness to God, we can carry even a heavy burden.
There is a cute message from ‘The Story of a Soul’, autobiography of Little Thérèse of the Child Jesus. “When Little Thérèse looked at the lives of the great saints, she admired them deeply. She saw their heroic sacrifices, their extraordinary penances and their remarkable achievements. And she also saw her own weakness. She realized that she could never become a great saint by relying on her own strength. For a time, this troubled her. Then she made a wonderful discovery. She realized that God was not asking her to climb the mountain of holiness by herself. Instead, He wanted to carry her.
This is how she explained it:
She compared herself to a little child standing at the bottom of a staircase that was far too high to climb. A small child cannot reach the top alone. But what does the child do? She stretches out her arms toward her father. She trusts that he will lift her. Like how an elevator lifts people quickly, our Father will lift us up high with His own big hands.
That became Thérèse’s “Little Way.”
She wrote, “It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.”
How different this is from the way many of us live. We often think we must carry every burden ourselves. We believe that if we worry enough, work hard enough or try harder, we will eventually find peace. Yet the more tightly we hold everything in our own hands, the more tired we become.
In today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ gently says to us, “Let Me carry what you cannot.”
Have you ever watched a small child walking beside her father? She is not anxious about the road ahead. She is not wondering whether she will reach home safely. She simply holds her father’s hand.
That is exactly the relationship our Lord Jesus desires with each one of us.
Notice that our Lord Jesus praises not the clever or the powerful but “infants.” He is not saying that knowledge is unimportant. Rather, He is teaching us that the mysteries of God’s love are understood not first by intelligence but by trust. A proud heart always wants to understand everything before believing.
A child simply says, “My Father knows.”
A pastor once said when he went to meet one of his parishioners on her deathbed, she said to him, “I am not able to breathe nor pray. But am still peaceful”.
This explains that trust gives huge peace even in the most difficult trials. Though she was suffering physically, her soul was filled with peace.
Sometimes we get up in the morning carrying the guilt of our yesterday’s mistakes. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not want us to do that. He wants us to be filled with enthusiasm to do His tasks. How can our Lord use if we are tired by thinking about our yesterday’s guilt?
So even if you are carrying your guilt, your burden of tomorrow, our Lord Jesus Chist says, “Come to Me.”
Our Lord does not promise that every difficulty will disappear. Rather, He promises that we will never carry them alone.
Our Lord surprises us by saying, “Take my yoke upon you… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
At first this seems like a contradiction. How can a yoke be easy?
The answer lies in understanding who carries it with us.
In the villages of ancient Israel, a young ox was often yoked together with an older, stronger ox. The experienced animal bore most of the weight and guided the younger one along the path.
That is what Christ does for us. He never asks us to carry life by ourselves.
Our Lord is asking us to surrender our problems to Him, and keep doing what we need to do.
Our Lord Jesus does not want us to carry our anxiety with us.
Are you being surrounded by people who are difficult to handle?
There is a beautiful story from the life of Little Thérèse. One of the sisters in her convent had a difficult personality. She often irritated Thérèse. Naturally, little Thérèse did not always feel affection toward her. Yet every day she smiled at her, treated her kindly, and quietly performed little acts of charity for her.
Years later, that sister asked little Thérèse, “Why do you like me so much?” She never realized that these acts had required sacrifice.
Little Thérèse did not wait until she felt love. She chose love.
She allowed her Jesus to love through her.
That is the Little Way!!
It is not about doing extraordinary things. It is about doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.
Perhaps we imagine holiness as something beyond our reach. But we can do what our Mamma Mary taught us.
Preparing a meal with love. Listening patiently to a family member. Forgiving quickly.
Offering our hidden sacrifices to our Lord Jesus.
These little acts become great because they are filled with love.
Do you believe that everything depends on you? Then that is the heaviest burden you are carrying.
Think like a child, “My Father will take care of me and all that is related to me. All I need to do is to hold His hands always”
Like how Simon carried the cross along with Jesus, imagine that you are carrying the cross along with Jesus. You and Jesus together can carry anything heavy!!