Fr. Michael Williams

In today’s gospel Jesus praises the Father for revealing the mysteries of the Kingdom to the little ones, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children”. Children’s humility opens them up to accepting God’s loving ways for them; however, the learned and the clever can often be too proud to accept God’s love. They can think they know better than God.

In the scriptures, Jesus contrasts “the mere children” with “the learned and the clever”. The “mere children” are the little ones, the people who humbly recognise their need of “the Lord of heaven and earth”. Children “come” to their parents for all their needs, we too need to go to the Lord for all our needs, because we are children of God. It doesn’t matter how old we are, compared to God we’re all babies.

Jesus contrasts the little ones with “the learned” and “the clever”. They can ‘rely on their own judgement’, and so become self-sufficient and independently minded. We can see this in the Church at times too. Some theologians believing that they know better than the Lord, abandoning the Sacred Scriptures There is always a danger that the learned and clever get a bit too much above their station, and stop recognising their littleness in comparison with God.

The Father, “Lord of heaven and earth” reveals Himself to those who know their need of God. God constantly reveals Himself to us, but often we are too busy or too proud to notice.

• God reveals Himself to us through the beauty of His creation, which the work of man seems to be destroying.

• God reveals Himself to us in the sick, Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel, “when you visited the sick you visited Me”. This day the Bishops of England have asked us to reach out to those with mental ill-health.

• God reveals Himself to us in the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Eucharist: “This is my Body…This is my Blood”.

• God reveals His teachings to us through the Scriptures, the Tradition and the Teaching Office of the Church. The Church has been entrusted to safeguard the Lord’s Revelation and this she will do until the end of time. The Church does not have the authority to change what Christ has instituted. So for example, the Church does not have the authority to ordain women to the priesthood. This is not because the Church is being old fashioned, but rather because she is being faithful to the Lord’s Revelation, which is often mysterious. The Church does not have the authority to change what the Lord has instituted.

• God reveals Himself to us in many, many different ways. To be able to recognise God when He reveals Himself to us we need to be not only like children, but also spiritual people, as St. Paul says.

To receive God’s revelation, in other words to receive God’s revealing of Himself and His ways, we need to be spiritual people. St. Paul says, “Your interests are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you”. We will never accept Our Lord and His revelation, unless we have a deeply spiritual relationship with Him. Unfortunately, today many people are only concerned with the unspiritual and there are others who are only concerned with the wrong spirituality - tarot cards, reike, new age, spiritualism, etcetera. But the true spiritual people of this world are open to the mystery of God and they know that the Lord alone is the One capable of giving “rest for your souls”.

Being “spiritual people” and “mere children” will open us up to the Mystery of God. It is only when we are open to God’s revelation of Himself that we can then take up the invitation of the Lord, who says to each one of us, “Come to me, you who labour and are overburdened…and you will find rest for y our souls”. Even in this life we can feel the strength and consolation that only the Lord can give to us. “The learned and the clever” who reject God’s invitation seek rest from other sources that will always disappoint. As St. Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until they rest In God”.

Let us continually take up the Lord’s invitation “to come to Him when we are laboured and overburdened” because only there “will you find rest for your souls”.

Jesus, meek and humble of Heart., Make our hearts like unto Thine.