Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus crying out in prayer to God his Father. God sent his Son into the world to make him known. Jesus reveals to his disciples the truth about God – a truth that we come to understand, not by human cleverness, but by trusting in the Lord. However learned or clever we may be in the eyes of the world, we are all children before the power and wisdom of God.

The truth is that Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. In today’s First Reading, the prophet Zechariah describes a King coming into Jerusalem, ‘humble and riding on a donkey,’ just as Jesus did. He is a King who has a special care for those who are poor and suffering. Jesus tells his disciples: ‘Shoulder my yoke and learn from me.’ A yoke was a wooden bar, placed across the shoulders of an animal so that it could bear a load. To shoulder Jesus’ yoke means that we put our faith in him and in his teaching. We submit to his authority because we trust in his love for us. We may feel burdened by the cares and struggles of this world, but Jesus will give us rest when we come to him and trust him. We can find rest nowhere else, but only in him.