The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Edwin Fernandez SVD – Divine Word College of Laoag
Wednesday 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Some years ago, when I took my vacation in the US, my mother and I were requested to look after my two-year-old niece because my younger brother and my sister-in-law had to go to work. Mom and I were worried about the time my little niece would start looking for her “Mama” and “Papa.” We did not know what to do if such a moment came. It did come.
She started to cry and look for her parents, but not finding them, she entered her parents’ room and tightly embraced the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There she cried and prayed. Her parents had taught her to always go to Mama Mary to seek refuge and safety whenever she missed them.
Jesus calls and challenges us to be like little children (childlike) so that we can enter the kingdom of God. One important trait of little children is their dependence and trust in their parents. They know and accept that they cannot live and sustain themselves without their parents’ love and care. Another important thing we can appreciate in little children is their ability to learn and grow. They listen and pay attention quite easily.
Jesus embodied a childlike attitude. He spent his life on earth listening to his Father, constantly seeking his will and doing it with total fidelity and love even at the cost of his very own life. He was always in profound communion with the Father, and such union was the source of all his decisions and actions. He unceasingly praised the Father for revealing his wisdom to the childlike and hiding it from those considered wise and learned in this world who, in their pride and arrogance, neither value any dependence on God nor thirst for his wisdom.
The wise and the learned of this world trust only in themselves and cannot accept the ways of God, which are a scandal to some and utter foolishness to others. But for those who trust in the Lord, true wisdom that leads to eternal life is found in God alone and in Jesus whom he sent to our world.
Are we considered wise and learned according to worldly standards? Or are we childlike, always open, and eager to drink each day from the fountain of God’s infinite wisdom?
“Jesus, thank you for sharing with us all that you have learned from the Father. Teach us to truly listen and keep your life-giving words deep within our hearts as Mary your Mother did. Amen.”
