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The God-given gifts of wisdom and intelligence often get short shrift in the teaching of Jesus, who thanks God in today’s gospel for having hidden the truth from the wise and powerful.
Jesus is not so much disparaging the gifts of wisdom and intelligence as he is rebuking the arrogance of people who believe their wisdom renders any reliance on God unnecessary. The wisdom Jesus dismisses is the acuity respected and celebrated by the world, while the wisdom he advocates requires turning to him, the only conduit to knowing God. St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, says the message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing and that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.
Most of us fall into the false wisdom trap intermittently, believing that we can find relief from our burdens without divine help. Only when we adopt the gentle nature and humility of heart embodied by Jesus can we shift our worldly yoke of troubles onto him and, in doing so, make our yoke easy, our burdens light.