14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Psalter week II
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 47: 10-11
Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple. Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with saving justice.
Collect
O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: Zechariah 9:9-10
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.
Psalm 144(145):1-2,8-11,13b-14
R/ I will bless your name for ever, O God my King.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Second reading: Romans 8:9,11-13
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: Mt 11:25
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
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.”
Prayer over the Offerings
May this oblation dedicated to your name purify us, O Lord, and day by day bring our conduct closer to the life of heaven. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Ps 33: 9
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed the man who seeks refuge in him.
Prayer after Communion
Grant, we pray, O Lord, that, having been replenished by such great gifts, we may gain the prize of salvation and never cease to praise you. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
In the first reading, the Lord sends the prince of peace. Although he rides on a donkey, he is righteous and victorious. Paul in the second reading proclaims that if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, then that same Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies. This Gospel marks the end of chapter 11 of Matthew throughout which Jesus expresses his anger at the unbelief of this generation. “Woe to you… Sodom will be treated less severely than you on the day of judgment.” So let us open our hearts to the breath of the Spirit and discover Christ in our daily experiences. The mysteries of the kingdom are hidden from the wise and learned, but revealed to the humble of heart, who have rest in God alone.