Jesus responds to his frustration with a prayer of trust in the Father. He praises the Father for having hidden the secrets of the kingdom from those who consider themselves wise and learned. We know that the kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure or a pearl of great price that our hearts naturally are meant to search for. As St. Augustine points out in the opening of his book, the Confessions, with the cry: “Our heart was made for you, O God, and it cannot rest until it rests in you!” We are given restless hearts that are constantly searching for the answers to life’s mysteries. We will be frustrated in our search if we are not seeking those answers in the Wisdom of God.
There is the story of the person that was desperately searching for something and his friend asked him what he was looking for and he answered that he had lost his keys and he was trying to find them. His friend offered to help and asked him where he thought he might have lost his keys, and he answered that he thought he had lost them down by the lake. Surprised, his friend asked him, “If you lost them down there, why are you looking for them here?” and the person answered, “The light is better here.” We will never find what we are looking for if we are looking in the wrong place. The popular song reminds us that we are sometimes “looking for love in all the wrong places.” We will not find our heart’s desire if we look in the wrong place. Dorothy Gale, in the Wizard of Oz, learned a hard lesson and promised that the next time she went looking for her heart’s desire she would look for it at home in her own backyard. We know of course that there is “no place like home,” and that “home is where the heart is.”
The secrets of the kingdom of heaven are hidden from those who consider themselves “the wise and the learned.” There are those who lean on their own understanding, on science and on the opinions of experts more than on the Word of God. People who, in their pride, think they have all the answers are closed to receiving the Truth that Jesus has to teach and that will open the way into the kingdom. The self-proclaimed wise and learned are so full of their own words, their wisdom and intelligence that they are not open to the revelation of God’s Truth in Jesus. St. Paul urges the Colossians: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3,3f) If we are Christians, we must search for our heart’s desire in the things above and not in what is on earth. What is hidden from the wise and learned in this world can be found in Christ Jesus. Our lives are hidden with Christ and he is the true wisdom that we seek to find the answers to life’s mysteries. St. Paul tells the Corinthians: “Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew for, if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1Cor 2,7f) Jesus Christ is the wisdom of the Father, the Eternal Word of love that the Father has spoken and that reveals to us the love of God and the Way to Eternal life. To understand this wisdom we must seek our answers in Jesus Christ, not in our own understanding. We must empty ourselves of pride and arrogance and become like “the little ones” who are literally children that do not yet have their own words to speak but look to their parents to teach them. To the little ones, the secrets of the kingdom are revealed, because they are capable of receiving them. They have no words of their own, they are waiting to receive the Eternal Word who is Jesus who can reveal the Father to them. They do not yet speak their own minds but they have the mind of the one who will teach them. In the same way, St. Paul tells us, “For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor 2,16) The secrets of life that our hearts yearn to know are revealed to those who have the mind of Christ.
Jesus reveals to us in his prayer to the Father today that: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” (Mt 11, 26ff) If we want to know the hidden depths of God the Father, then we must listen to and be taught by the Son, Jesus. Jesus invites us to come freely to him so that we might learn of the Father’s love and of his gracious will for our salvation and that we might find rest in him. Perfect repose in the will of the Father is the end of all our Christian striving and searching. If we want to know what is in the heart of God then Jesus invites us to “Come to me… and I will give you rest!” The very heart of God is gentle and humble and it is in this gentle and humble heart that we will find our rest. Jesus, the Son, wishes to reveal the gentle and humble heart of love that is the Father to all of us and so he issues the broad and far-reaching invitation, “Come to me!”
There is a caveat that Jesus offers to us, for to enter into the mystery of the gentle and humble love of the Father’s heart we must assume a yoke. We must be joined to Jesus by his yoke so that we might bear the easy and light burden of love with him. Jesus the Son is eternally joined as One with the Father and we must freely take the yoke of Jesus if we are to learn from him the secrets of the kingdom. Jesus encourages us gently to come to him, to assume his yoke, to learn from him and then to rest in his love. To those who come to Jesus, Jesus promises the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah: “Stop at the crossroads; look for the ancient paths, ask, ‘Where is the way that leads to what is good?’ Then take that way, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jer 6,16) The chasuble that the priest wears to celebrate mass is a symbol of the gentle yoke of Jesus. In the vesting prayers, the priest is reminded that he is taking on his shoulders the yoke of Jesus and walking with him along the ancient paths of wisdom, truth, beauty and goodness. There as a good shepherd, he will lead his sheep to the fresh and green pastures of repose.
If your hearts are searching for the hidden secrets of the kingdom and a true knowledge of the gentle, humble and merciful heart of the Father; if your heart desires to rest in the Father’s love and embrace; if you want to know what is truly good and wise, then you must not look for love in all the wrong places. You must come to Jesus and look only to Jesus who is the Eternal Word, spoken from the beginning of the world by the Father and revealed by the Spirit to those who seek him. You must take upon yourself the yoke of Jesus and learn from him for truly only he has the words of everlasting life. Yoked to Jesus, walking side by side with him on your journey you will find your way to that perfect repose in God the Father’s will. There, you will find rest for your soul, there, you will know peace. Amen!