Daily Readings Reflection for 7/14/10

Reflection on Today’s Daily Readings by Fr. Bertrand Buby, SM

Scripture: July 14, Lectionary # 391. Isaiah 10:5-7.13-16. Psalm 94:5-6.
7-8.9-10.14-15. Matthew 11:25-27:

Jesus prays and we are privileged to hear how he prays in an intimate way
with his Father, God. We are led to contemplate this prayer and to listen
to its important revelation of who He is with regard to the Father. We
listen to the Father and the Son in this passage and enjoy the
communication of two Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit is present
too, in the way, Matthew records this prayer and hands it on to us as he
did for his community of Christians and Jews united under the same roof.
It is a rare passage and reminds us of the Prologue of St. John's Gospel.
We are listening to the heart, mind, and soul of Jesus expressing itself in
relationship to God and we learn much from such a passage of Sacred
Scripture.

In John's Prologue the last verse is similar to the content of Jesus'
prayer: "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son who is close to
the Father's heart who has made him known (John 1:18). We allow ourselves
some time to ponder over the profound prayer Jesus has revealed through the
Spirit in Matthew's Gospel. It is like a meteroite that has fallen from the
Fourth Gospel into the field of Matthew's Gospel (R.E.Brown,SS).

Like children listening to a parent as they tell them stories, we listen at
the feet of Jesus and learn much about contemplative prayer. Jesus praises
the Father for what he has hidden from the clever and the learned, He has
revealed to the smallest child. We are able to reflect on the passage by
becoming like a child in our listening to the sacred revelatory words of a
prayer belonging to Jesus. By joining with the great woman of faith, Mary
the Mother of Jesus, we are led to ponder over how she stored up so many
things that she saw and heard from her Son Jesus. It is she who taught him
how to pray in his Aramaic language and gave him so many stories that he
could share with us through his parables. We are prompted to ask her to
help us fathom the prayer of Jesus as she certainly did with her listening
heart.

Our Psalm and its response are well chosen for this liturgical reading.
Within the Psalm God is focused upon in his most sacred name (Yahweh)
eleven times. The presence of God throughout this Psalm lets us enter into
the faithful prayer of the Israelite psalmist. We see how his heart yearns
for the justice and mercy of God upon his people and their nation. The
English philosopher John Stuart Mill said that verse nine contains the
strongest argument for the existence of God: "He that planted the ear,
shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?" This means
that "He who gave others the power to hear and see can surely Himself hear
and see." Amen.