Word of the Week

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Yoke: Zygos (Gk.): derived from the Greek word zeignumi, meaning, “to join; to yoke”, or “to balance as with a pair of scales.” In the figurative sense, it can also mean “oppression or servitude.”

The CCC makes it clear: “The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness” (CCC, 459), and for this reason, we are to live in Christ and imitate his ways of holiness. We achieve this task by adhering to his rules for holiness. Here, the CCC echoes two key passages from the gospels: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." (Mt.11:29; Jn.14:6) (CCC, 459). So we must listen to him in every walk of life (cf. Mk.9:7) and see his model of love as our call to offer ourselves to God in everything and everywhere (cf. CCC, 459) (cf. Jn.15:12; Mk.8:34).

The Greek zygos can be found six times in the New Testament. Highlighted among these passages are Christ’s own words of exhortation to learn from his way of sonship in obedience to his Father (cf. Mt.11:28-30) and Paul’s teaching on Christian Freedom (cf. Gal.5:1-15). First, let us consider Christ’s words: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt.11:28-30). In this Matthian passage, Christ is re-sounding the call of wisdom from the Old Testament to “draw near to me…and put your neck under the yoke” (Sir.51:23-26). Here, Jesus reveals himself as Wisdom enfleshed, and calls us to seek the ways of faith by being in relationship with him who is Wisdom (Hahn and Minch, 36). Next, is Paul’s passage that builds upon the teaching of Christ’s own use of yoke: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal.5:1). Throughout all of Paul’s epistles we read him translating the OT in light of the words and life of Christ. His usage of yoke is a key to understand this translation because of its application to freedom. Let me explain, the word yoke in antiquity was seen as a burden, because of the ways in which the Mosaic laws were enforced by the Pharisees. Law at times was perceived to have a negative function. Yet, Christ teaches us in his own commandment that law is about relationship, and if we are to truly be free, then we must follow the ways of the Father to better understand the ways of divinity. Essentially, the laws are now easier kept (per se), because God has given us a means to understand the greater purpose of law—relationship with Christ.

As today’s gospel calls for a radical relationship with Jesus Christ (cf. Lk.9:51-62), we must never lose sight of the importance of our call to weekly engage the nature of our relationship with Jesus Christ. This Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time affords us the opportunity to consider divine sonship in light of being yoked in Christ. It is most noteworthy that the term yoke is derived from the same Greek root from where we get the word zygote. We know from our junior high school classroom that a zygote is the initial cell formed when a new organism is produced by means of sexual reproduction. Essentially speaking, the zygote is the first stage of the living organism’s development. Our Christian heritage has always sought out to better understand the nature of science, in all of its organic imagery, to understand the very intimate union that we share with Christ.  Christian discipleship is about the new life that is spawned from our being baptized into Christ in the generative force that is the Holy Spirit. Let us go forward in our commitments to Christ and breathe new life in the cause of the Church that is the new evangelization.

 

“To evangelize means making Christ present in the life of man as a person, and at the same time in the life of society. To evangelize means doing everything possible, according to our capacities, in order that man "may believe"; in order that man may find himself again in Christ, in order that he may find again in him the meaning and the adequate dimension of his own life. This finding again is, at the same time, the deepest source of man's liberation, St Paul expresses this when he writes: ‘For freedom Christ has set us free’ (Gal.5:1)”

--John Paul II

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000.

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