Reflection on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 5, 2020
He will remove our burdens and give us rest
Carlo Dureza
Media & Campus Ministry
Marian apparitions and a previous Sunday gospel reading. These were the significant stories I recalled that struck a chord in my heart as I reflected on today’s gospel. My reflections were on the blessings of poverty in the eyes of the Lord. His mercy and loving-kindness abound to those who are poor.
The Lady of Lourdes appeared to an unschooled girl, Bernadette Soubirous. The validity of her testimony saying that she saw a beautiful woman in a cave by a wide lake in Lourdes, France, wearing a white sheathe with a blue sash, hinged on her words, “Immaculatae conceptionis” (Immaculate Concepcion). Authorities interrogating her came to believe the facts of the apparition as her words were not befitting the knowledge of a poor, unlettered youth. How could she have spoken this? Some “miracle” may have happened to her.
The Lady of Fatima appeared to three peasant children tending dirty sheep in Cova da Iria, a mountainous area in Fatima, Portugal. Disregarded and even threatened at first, they stood firm on their testimony of the “lady more brilliant than the sun” and drew droves of people to the apparition site on the 13th day of each succeeding month after the Spring in May, 1917. Such a spectacle roused by 3 children from lowly families.
The “Beatitudes” in the Sermon on the Mount spoke directly about the poor and their blessedness. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God; blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the land; blessed are the hungry for they shall be satisfied. The rich, clever and wise will be sent empty away. Clearly, those who are in dire want will be filled with God’s goodness.
Poverty has a way of making God’s graces abound. It is when we are bereft of material wealth and are empty of all self-importance and worldly cares that the grace of God works wonders within us. Being poor makes us dependent on and accepting of God. The poor seek God to fill their hearts. God desires that we draw close to Him. He enables the poor to spread His graces because they accommodate Him more in their lives and are more willing to cooperate in working with Him. The poor have God only. It is to these little ones therefore, that He reveals Himself the most and uses them for His greater glory.
At this time of the pandemic, let us call unto God alone and be dependent on Him only. That is what He asks of us. In our poverty, He is inviting us to cast our worries upon Him. Let us allow Him to take control of this situation. He will deliver us in our helplessness. Like Bernadette, the three children sheep-carers and the poor in the Beatitudes, we need only to be “little” and poor before Him and trust that He will remove our burdens and give us rest.
Happy Sunday, God bless!!
