Greatest in the Kingdom (Mt 18:1-4)

Today is the feast of St. Therese of Child Jesus, a saint who followed the spirituality of childness. It is, in short, be a child who is totally dependent on the power of the Father. The child is pretty sure that the loving father would provide him/her whatever he needs.

The word CHILD can be developed in to five words; such as

C-Care/careful

- We care child and we tell the child to take care or be careful. Let us care each other and be careful of the dangers that can destroy our spiritual growth.

H-Humility

- Child knows that with the parents it is nothing. So it accepts its limitations. Let us accept our limitations and human weakness so that we may be strong in Christ.

I-Innocence

- The child cannot act by keeping something else in mind. It is usually very easy to analyze whether the child is telling lie or not by looking at the face. Let us be innocent before God and human.

L-Love

- The child may quarrel with its siblings, but at the end of the day he/she forgets everything and once again loves them. Let us love others by forgiving and forgetting others mistakes.

D-Dependent

- Child depends on the parents for everything. This dependency reveals the power of the parents and the limitation of the child. Let us depend totally on our Heavenly Father, the all Powerful God.

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is for those who are like a child. Let us imbibe the values in a child and acquire the Kingdom.

(Courtesy to Fr. James Thayil CMI)

Greatest in the Kingdom (Lk 9:46-50)

The discussion about who is greatest follows the second passion prediction of Jesus. The human being has the desire to be greatest among their fellow brethren. Is there anything wrong in that desire?

The word “greatest” is in superlative degree and presupposes the positions such as greater, great, less great, least etc. In other worlds greatest is always in comparison with something else. Comparison always makes a person wrestles and envy. Therefore nobody will enjoy the peace of mind if there is a thought about “am I the greatest among all my fellow beings?”. Christ teaches us to be equal under One Master that is He Himself.

The title superior (greatest) presupposes an inferior or more. For the sake of administration there may be a need for these titles. But Jesus teaches us how to use that position by showing the model of a servant leader, by washing the feet of the disciples. In today’s gospel he teaches us to receive a child which means to receive a person who is weak and vulnerable, to support and nourish. Let the model the Servant Leader motivate us in our daily lives.

Blessing of the Children (Mt 19:13-15)

The previous day the gospel passage was about the hardness of heart in the discussion of the divorce and the Law of Moses on divorce. Jesus blamed the Pharisees because of their hardness of heart. Today Jesus brings forth a model to follow against the hardness of heart, a model of child.

The child has the quality of receptivity and a sense of wonder in everything. They are receptive to new things, ideas and everything. Sometime the elders make use of this receptivity to cheat them, which is not good. They look everything with wonder.

Once I went for a movie with a friend who is a documentary film producer. We both watched the film and while we were returning we were sharing out thoughts about the film with each other. I said to him that the film was marvelous. But he began to critically analyze the film by saying that the selection of the shot was not so good, the camera angle was incorrect, the story line could be improved little bit and so on. I understood that he was too critical and so could not enjoy the movie as I enjoyed it. It is not the fault of his but could not help it since he is also a professional in the field of movie. I told him ‘to enjoy the movie you should less critical for at least the time of movie”.

In the matter of faith, to appreciate the wonders of the God in the creation we should have the receptivity of the children, a sense of “wonder” at everything that we experience in and around us. Each creation is a wonder of God, each moment is a wonder of the Divine, and each incident in my life is a wonder of His Providence. It does not mean that we should not be critical but must accept that we may not be able to grasp everything about god with our human brain.

Let us grow in the simple faith in God that would enable us to see the hand of God in everything.