(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Mass-Blog-for-the-Solemnity-of-the-Most-Holy-Trinity-2026.mp3)
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, “If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own.” (Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9)
Stiff-necked is used at least a dozen times in the Old Testament to describe “The Chosen People.” It’s used only once in the New, and it resulted in a death sentence for Steven, one of the people chosen to carry on Christ’s mission of growing God’s Kingdom on earth. He was criticizing the continuing tradition of chosen people stubbornly rejecting the prophets God sent to guide them—even God’s Son in flesh and spirit.
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.” (Acts 7:51-53)
His listeners blocked their ears but couldn’t silence the truth that they were as stiff-necked and stubborn as the most immovable ox, refusing to be guided by God’s yoke. In this case the yoke was God’s law of love that they were expected to apply in word and deed.
Paul, who as Saul was the most stiff-necked of God’s chosen people, approved of and witnessed Steven’s murder. But reborn as Paul, he would embrace God’s yoke and tell his fellow oxen:
“Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2 Corinthians 13:11-13)
Paul’s advice softened the stiff necks of generations of beasts burdened by the yoke of their own misguided ways. His words have inspired us stubborn oxen to throw off the yoke of sin and replace it with one they could happily wear everywhere—even to football games. They’d write down on poster board the instructions for joining them in courageously accepting this harness so fellow fans and national television audiences could help each other wear and bear it:
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16-18)
Through the gospels, God continues to answer Moses’ prayer to “come along in our company.” And, we might add, please God, maintain ownership of this vast team of oxen struggling to plow a straight path to Your Kingdom.
–Tom Andel