<h1>Breath of the Spirit Reflection:</h1><p><strong>Accepting a K.I.S.S. from the Divine: An Easy Yoke and a Child-like Love</strong></p><p><em>To be sure the world is complex and multi-layered. People and situations can be complicated. However our response to these complexities (while not easy) can often be simple: offering concern listening caring accompanying. Todays reflection reminds us that in a complicated world real solutions often start with a simple decision to love.</em></p><p><strong><em>A reflection by Richard Young</em></strong></p><p>Our scriptures for the fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time are full of contrasts: the flesh and the Spirit heavy burdens and light and easy ones learned and clever people and humble and peaceful ones the childish and the childlike. I hope to shed some light on all these and to do so Ive added something to our gospel reading. Matthew 11: 16-19 is not included in the gospel passage for this Sunday in the standard Roman Catholic lectionary. It is however in the Revised Common Lectionary used by Protestant churches. Those verses contain a biting critique by Matthews Jesus of the childish nature of his own generation. If you went to a traditional Catholic parish you would miss this little gem. I would advise Dignity chapters to include it.</p><p>Matthews Jesus cant catch a break. He is in a damned if you do/ damned if you dont situation in those four verses. John the baptizer fasted a lot and he is labeled crazy. Jesus who doesnt fast but engages in table fellowship with everyone is called a drunkard and a glutton. Neither prophet is acceptable to the childish cynical fault finders of Jesus day. They arent happy with John whom Jesus calls the greatest person in history. And they are like mean teasing children in their assessment of Jesus. Some people cant be pleased no matter what you do. Its a wonder that John or Jesus had any disciples at all. Thats what Jesus generation was like. Does it sound like this one?</p><p>But as with every generation not everybody finds an excuse for ignoring what is right in front of them. Not everybody is like the children in those four extra verses today the children of the marketplace laughing and taunting and dismissing Gods messengers. Not everybody fails to see divinity the power of love the Reign of God staring them in the face. Not everyone is blind to the image in our first reading: the humble bringer of peace who arrives not in power and glory but on a dirty donkey. Now thats humble! Not everyone clings to childish assumptions about whom God might send and how. Not everyone! Some are like John the baptizer who is in jail at the beginning of this eleventh chapter of Matthew and is willing to consider that Jesus just might be the Messiah. So he sends his disciples to ask Are you the one who is to come? Jesus could have replied Yes and so are you! Look at the evidence John. The preaching the teaching the healing of the blind and the lame the comforting of the poorall are signs that the Reign of God is here within us and around us! John because he is open to this Good News is surely among those merest children the not-so learned and clever to whom divine mystery is revealed.</p><p>When we add those four verses to todays gospel we hear children mentioned twice and a contrast between the two that is very instructive. There are the immature childish ones the ones who sit around in the marketplace poking fun at the virtuous. And there are the spiritually mature child-like ones who are open to mystery and wonderand are therefore wiser than the scribes and the Pharisees. The childish versus the childlike.</p><p>I asked earlier if Jesus generation which he rightly criticizes is similar to our own. You might recall that in 2020 Marianne Williamson the popular author whom Oprah called her spiritual advisor briefly ran for the Democratic nomination for president. She participated in two primary debates at a time when there were about twenty candidates so she did not have much opportunity to speak about her positions on the issues. Debate moderators and other modern-day cynical children of the marketplace the ones who fancy themselves among the learned and the clever hardly took her campaign seriously. In fact some pundits actually ridiculed it. I recall that she spoke of a need for a politics of love which is the name of one of her books. There is no doubt that our politics could use a huge dose of love but the phrase just became an excuse to dismiss her as a serious candidate with ideas worthy of our consideration. To talk about love in the business of politics seemed naave and way too new age for the elites in the press. They piped a tune and sang a song called conventional wisdom and Marianne refused to dance or sing along so they dumped her. It was a matter of the so-called learned and clever attacking the humble onejust like in Jesus generation. Why do they (we?) do that?</p><p>Pauls words in todays second reading kind of explain it. Its his reflection on the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. To appreciate what Paul has to say about it its helpful if we think of flesh as a metaphor. Its not literally skin and muscle and bone. Instead the word stands for all of our worst instincts: envy jealousy greed arrogance closed-mindedness anything that is unloving and selfish. Thats flesh. The Spirit which Paul says dwells in us produces these instincts instead: love joy peace patient endurance kindness generosity faithfulness gentleness and self-control. That list is from his letter to the Galatians. When Im at my best Im childlike Im open to wonder to all that is holy and beautiful and the Spirit is at work in me. When Im in the flesh Im childish and immature like those of Jesus generation and you wouldnt want to be around me.</p><p>There is still one more contrast in todays readings that needs our attention. It is the one about the heavy yoke and the easy one. A yoke is a wooden frame that harnesses oxen together. When Matthews Jesus says Come to me all you who labor and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest he was referring to those who have become burdened (yoked) like an animal pulling a plough burdened not only by the physical demands of life but also by the many prescriptions of Jewish Law the stuff you had to do to be a good Jew. My dictionary says yoke can mean any mark or symbol of bondage or servitude. What a way to think of the Law! It weighs you down! The Law was not meant to do that but it did especially the way that the religious scholars the learned and the clever of Jesus day were interpreting it. Take <em>my</em> yoke upon your shoulders Jesus teaches. Learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart. Here you will find rest for your souls for <em>my</em> yoke [unlike the yoke of the Law] is easy and <em>my</em> burden is light. The burden that Jesus asked the disciples to bear was not about law; it was about loving as he loved and not overthinking it. Just love. The childlike get that. The Law wont save you Saint Paul argued in yet another passage. Being learned and clever wont do it either. What God reveals is more received by the heart than by the brain. What Jesus teaches here is just another way of proclaiming the first and third beatitudes: Blessed are those who are poor in spirit and blessed are those who are meek or gentle or humble.</p><p>Folks in twelve step programs (AA Al-anon and others) love their sLogans one of which is K-I-S-S which stands for Keep It Simple Silly. (They used to say Keep It Simple Stupid. Thankfully they changed it.) These are people who have over-complicated their lives burdened themselves not only by their addictions but by their damaged relationships with family and friends. They sometimes resemble the cynical childish ones in the marketplace that characterized Jesus generation. They often live by a heavy yoke that weighs on their psyches like a big burly cop kneeling on their necks. That yoke is a set of self-imposed laws and demands that are unrealistic or cruel: I must never make a mistake; I must never admit to being powerless; I dont deserve the blessings I get in life; I cant relax ever; nobody really loves me they just pretend to; Ive done so many rotten things I will never be forgiven; Im a failure and I always will be might as well go back to drinking. This horribly self-defeating thinking (what twelve-steppers call stinkin thinkin) gets them into all kinds of trouble legal financial medical career. Its what Paul would call in the flesh thinking instead of in the Spirit. In my years in public mental health I have come to admire so many addicts who have worked so hard to Keep It Simple Silly to avoid being confused by the allegedly learned and the clever so that they could come out of the huge hole they dug for themselves. They did so by a very child-like acceptance of a very different yoke not the dangerous one they had been living under. They did so by adopting some very simple rules: get support; give support; make amends; work the program; stick with your Higher Power. In many cases it is the high-powered words we heard today that gave them comfort: words about choosing the right yoke about learning from the One who is gentle and humble of heart.&nbsp;</p><p>Rest for your souls is todays Gospel promise that we all cling to. Doesnt it sound sweet? How our souls could use a rest! In these days when it seems like the whole world is in the flesh and caught under a deadly strangling yoke in these times of chaos and fear may we accept with childlike joy that lighter yoke the gift of the humble One whose Spirit dwells in us. AMEN!</p><p></p><div><div class=titan__email-divider>&nbsp;<img class=align-center src=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/neon/resource/dignityusa/images/richard%20young.png alt=Richard Young width=166></div></div><div class=mobile-full><p><em><strong>Rev. Richard P. Young</strong>&nbsp;is a retired Catholic priest and mental health counselor. He chairs the Liturgy Committee of Dignity/Daytons Living Beatitudes Community and has worked with several Dignity Chapters since the late 70s.&nbsp;He once served for a term on the national board of DignityUSA and has attended all the national conventions/conferences since 1981.</em></p><p><em>He is married to former DignityUSAs national secretary Bob Butts. Richard was honored with a Presidents Award at the 2022 Dignity National Conference in San Diego.</em></p><p></p></div><p style=text-align: center;><a class=btn btn-primary href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Subscribe to Breath of the Spirit</a></p>