The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16
Psalm 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15
Matthew 11:25-27

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

“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 the childlike.” (Matthew 11:25)

Jesus tells us today that to really know the things of God, we must become like children. In fact, he alludes to this many times in the gospels. What exactly does He mean and, more, what exactly is “childlike”?

Children come to their parents without any preconceived notion of how things should be. They trust their parents completely, rely on them totally for their very survival. They seek out their parents as sources of comfort, safety and knowledge. They love their parents unconditionally. They completely belong to their parents, and no one else.

This, then, is what we must become to approach the Father. To become childlike is to lose all our preconceived adult ideas, trust Him completely and recognize that our very existence is due to Him. We must seek Him for the comfort, safety and knowledge we need to live. And most important, we must love Him unconditionally and belong to Him and Him alone.

This is what it is to be childlike. Anything different puts us in a place where we cannot fully receive what God has for us.

- Don Claunch, SFO
(dlclaunch at bresnan dot net)