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| Jesus expels the moneychangers from the Temple. |
(Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given on July 9, 2023 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 145:1-14; Romans 8:9-13; Matthew 11:25-30.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourteenth Sunday 2023]
Was Jesus Christ a schlep?
I hope no one is offended by that question. I ask it in all seriousness, based on an all-too-common misinterpretation of the word “meek” as it appears in the Bible. In our first reading—in this famous text from Zechariah 9—we are told that the Messiah will be “meek,” and that he will enter the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. (This prophecy, of course, was fulfilled on the very first Palm Sunday when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem.) And then, in this well-known Gospel passage from Matthew 11, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
So, what exactly does it mean to be “meek?”
Well, I submit to you that most people today think being meek means being a schlep! Now just in case your Yiddish is a bit rusty, I should mention that a schlep is someone who just plods along clumsily through life—without any initiative, without any assertiveness, without any backbone.
The pop singer Frank Zappa was certainly no prophet, but he did accurately express this misunderstanding of meekness in one of his songs, when he wrote: “Some take the Bible for what it’s worth, when it says that the meek shall inherit the earth; well I heard that some sheik bought New Jersey last week, and you . . . ain’t gettin’ nothing!”—the implication being that “meek” people are wimpy schleps who allow others to take advantage of them.
That’s wrong!
If that were meekness, my brothers and sisters, then “meek” Jesus would never have driven the money-changers out of the temple or reprimanded the Pharisees! Clearly Jesus was not a schlep! Neither was Moses, who tossed the Ten Commandments down Mt. Sinai at Aaron and the Israelites after they had sinned by worshipping the golden calf! And yet, in the book of Numbers, this same Moses is called “the meekest of men.”
Biblically speaking, meekness is not weakness, it’s strength! Meekness is the strength to deal with adversity without complaining; meekness is the strength to accept God’s will even when we might not like it or understand it (which can happen quite often!); meekness is the strength to keep our emotions under control when they could easily get out of control—like when we’re driving around Westerly in the summertime!
That’s why Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek!” If you can deal with adversity without complaining, and accept God’s will even when it’s difficult and you don’t understand it, and keep your emotions in check all the time—even when the summer traffic in our beautiful town is at its worst, then you definitely will be a blessed person! No doubt about it!
And how can we learn this virtue of meekness?
According to Jesus, we can—and we should—learn it, first and foremost, from him! As he said to us today, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
No one of us has faced more adversity than Jesus Christ faced, because no one of us has had to take the sins of the whole world upon himself. No one of us has been challenged to accept God’s will more than Jesus was challenged, since for him God’s will was the Cross! And no human being alive today is as “emotionally together” as Jesus was. For example, consider the very common emotion of anger. Whenever Jesus Christ got angry, you could be absolutely certain of three things: it was justified, it was not sinful, and it was not excessive. Would that we could always say that about our anger!
Jesus says here that he wants to give us “rest”—which signifies his peace. But it’s clear from the text that meekness is a pre-requisite for receiving this peace in its fullness. It’s not optional. Consequently our prayer at this Mass should be, “O Lord Jesus, please help me and teach me to be meek, as you were meek—help me to imitate you—so that I might experience a greater measure of your peace in my life. Amen.”
