Fr. Michael Williams

We know children go to their parents for all their needs. And we too need to go to the Lord for all our needs, because we are children of God. Being here today is a sign that we recognise our need of God. It doesn’t matter how old we are- compared to God we’re all babies. And we are far more dependent on God, than even a baby is on its mother!

Today 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”.

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. Being learned is only a good thing if it is used for serving God and humanity. 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 can be too busy, or too proud, to notice.

God reveals Himself to us through the beauty of His creation; He reveals Himself to us in the sick and the lowly; He reveals Himself to us in the Sacraments of the Church: “This is my Body…This is my Blood”; He reveals Himself to us through the Scriptures.

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 of Himself 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 and prayerful relationship with Him. Unfortunately, today many people are only concerned with the unspiritual, and there are others who are concerned with the wrong spirituality, and so they are not open to the Lord.

Being “spiritual people” and “mere children” will open us up to the Mystery of God, especially to the mystery of suffering people often have to endure in this life. 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 your souls”. Even in this life we can feel the strength and consolation that the Lord wants to give to us. “The learned and the clever” who can and often do reject God’s invitation, seek rest from other sources that will always disappoint.

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