Posted by The WORD in other words (2017) by Fr Cornelio Alpuerto SVD – University of San Carlos, Cebu City
Feast of Santo Niño -C (Proper to the Philippines)
The child that Matthew brings to our attention the Gospel could be any child. The Child of Isaiah in the first reading is now some 30 years old so so, Jesus of Nazareth and he is now the great teacher, the center of our attention. He pick sup a particular child, putting him in the midst of his disciples as he replies to the disciple’s question : “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven…” So the answer to the query is : the humble one , the humblest one, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. For one to enter the kingdom one must become like a little child. And for one to be the greatest in the kingdom, one must be the humblest.
Who would not want to win heaven? The disciples of Jesus themselves did not only have the ambition to get there but even to be great there. In other words, Jesus’ admonition is as clear as it is simple: Be childlike, be lowly, be little, be simple, be humble.
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus did very wisely when she took this particular word of Jesus to be the very kernel of her spirituality, her “Little Way” — “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and self-surrender to God.” She was a little child trusting the Heavenly Father fully — imagining herself in the arms of him, sage and secure, feeling infinitely loved, with nothing to fear or to be anxious about. Not even about her sins she trusted in the all-forgiving Father.
“Unless we become little, we cannot please God,” according to Saint Arnold Janssen (1837-1909), the father and founder of the Arnoldus family : SVD, SSpS and SSpSAP (pink sisters).
As a Little Child –that is how the Saviour of the world, the Son of God himself, started his journey of saving humankind. And he kept to being little all the days his life on earth, such that he could throw his great challenge at normally proud, arrogant earthling : “Learn of me for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Finally, like a helpless little child forsaken by his Father, he could tell his Father and just before he breathed his last on the cross: “Mission accomplished. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And was the Father pleased, indeed…! (cf. Phil 2,6-11) Miserable earthling that we are, when, oh when, do we learn to be Christ-like, at last.
One comment