Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
It is quite a weekend on multiple levels. Personally, I am just back from a three-week stay with my mom and the family. Walking away from my 89-year-old mom is a heart-rending moment. Emotionally, I am fragile and vulnerable every time I do this. On the larger level, it’s the weekend of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America. The sentiments of the nation are on the highest level. And then, of course, we have the scripture readings for today’s liturgy. These readings stand on their own. So, I have been reflecting – through these scripture readings, what is God saying to me as I re-adjust back to ministry; what is God saying to us as a people of faith; and what is God saying to the nation? This homily is my reflection on these questions.
Approaching Life with Childlikeness
I would like to begin with the gospel reading. When Jesus said, "I give praise to you, Father, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones” (Mt 11:25), he was saying that the truths about the reign of God are not grasped through intellectual sophistication. The "wise and learned" are those who rely on human intellect and self-sufficiency to grasp God’s truth. I have a PhD in theology but the truths about the reign of God are not all grasped through theological expertise. Those who rely on themselves for God’s truths don’t necessarily end up with God’s truths. Neither is God’s wisdom grasped by those who are clever and shrewd in the ways of the world. Rather, God’s truths are grasped through humility and simple faith. It is “the childlike,” that are able approach God with open, teachable, and dependent hearts, much like trusting children. It is to them that God is able to reveal heavenly wisdom.
My mother taught me how this plays out in real life. Each time I leave my mother behind to come back to ministry in Dayton, I breakdown but my mother stands there as a tower of strength. The day before I left home, a relative had called and said to my mother, “You must be sad that your son is leaving.” She said, “Have I not done this for over forty years? There is no reason to be sad. I must bless him and let him leave happily do God’s bidding.” I sat next to her in stunned silence. She was not approaching life through any intellectual sophistication but purely in humility before God and simplicity of faith. She is not to be counted among the “wise and the learned” but among “the childlike.”
I invite you to reflect on this for yourself. If Christ can count you among “the childlike” you are indeed blessed.
Approaching America’s 250th Anniversary with Childlikeness
I am wondering what is means to approach and celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with today’s scripture as our guide. The reality is that two hundred and fifty years after its founding, America finds itself very divided about its identity and place in the world. I want to rely on a very tiny part of American history to connect it to today’s scripture. In the gospel reading Jesus says:
"Come to me,
all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.”
Do these words, remind you something from American history? They remind me of the famous words inscribed on the plaque at the Statue of Liberty. The words by the great American poet Emma Lazarus reads:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
This is what I find fascinating – that despite being founded as a secular nation with a secular Constitution, there is a humanity about independent America that is very close to Jesus’ call to benevolence and humanity. It was never perfect and never will be, but America represents a certain goodness and humanity.
I pray that America will never lose its humanity. “Liberty and justice for all” is an American value that it finds its source in Jesus’ ministry of love, mercy, and hope. I pray that America may never lose its power to be beacon of hope, especially for those around the globe that need hope and humanity. I pray that America will not lose its ability to be childlike as opposed to the wise and learned, the arrogant and the haughty of the world. I pray on the 250th anniversary of America, that she, like Jesus, will always say, “Come to me all you who are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
The God of the Childlike
In today’s gospel, Jesus says something that might not catch our attention unless we reflect upon it deeply. After Jesus says, “You have revealed them to the childlike,” he adds, “Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will” (Mt 11:26). Jesus reveals the intentionality of the Father. God is the God of the childlike.
Jesus is the greatest example of the childlike. As today’s first reading from Isaiah prophesied, “Your king shall come to you. A just savior is he, meek and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass” (Zech 9:9). Jesus, the king, came into the world as a child. Jesus, the savior was just, simple, and humble. His entire approach to God, the people, to ministry, to life and even toward death was childlike. He did live not by intellectual sophistication and theological expertise. Neither did he live in arrogance, power mongering, greed, or self-promotion. Rather, he lived in meekness, humility, and childlikeness. It was most seen in his obedience to his Father and selfless service to the people. He left the arrogant and the self-sufficient to themselves. Instead, he mingled with the poor, the outcast, the children, and the childlike. In this he showed us the God of the childlike.
As people, as Catholics, and as a nation there are implications to putting our faith in the God of the childlike. Wisdom belongs to the childlike. God belongs to the childlike. Life belongs to the childlike. Eternity belongs to the childlike.
I want to end this homily by reading the words of Jesus once again.
"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”
At the end of our lives, may we be found to be childlike. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph