A reflection on Matthew 11:25-30 by Fr. Timothy Danaher, O.P. — “This passage is called “the pearl of Matthew’s gospel.” As Jesus usually speaks to the crowds outwardly, here he speaks to the Father and lets them listen in for the first time to that ongoing sacred dialogue in his heart. And what is happening in the heart of Christ is praise. He overflows with praise to the Father for all the good happening in the world, by the Father’s power and according to his detailed plans.
Every saint has taken up this tone in their own heart. We cannot become holy unless praise is primary in the heart. Because this is reality, the world is overflowing with the goodness of God, and although sin does abound, grace abounds all the more. This is realism, this is how the world actually is and how we should learn to see it with Christ’s eyes.
If we react to this with hesitation, returning again to the litany of evils in our world, we put ourselves on the side of the Pharisees, who, though they kept God’s laws, were obsessed with every instance of those laws being broken. In any culture or context, a reigning negativity is by definition Pharisaism. For his part, Jesus was saving the world right in front of them while they were in a sour mood.
Like their savior, saints press on gently. It is praise that gives them strength to work in a broken world, for it is not they who add beauty to the world. They simply help God as cooperators, small and humble, in his great task of beautifying the world more deeply, every day restoring beauty to the broken places, which is what God loves to do. And He loves to include us in the plans of his heart, in the song of his praise.”
