REFLECTIONS TODAY

(MATTHEW 18:3b)

In Jewish society in Jesus’ time, children, while loved, were not considered important. They accepted what those who were older and greater gave them. Jesus says that to become like a child, one should humble oneself. Children do not humble themselves because they are already little and are aware of their littleness. Adults should be the ones to humble themselves; they must consciously and deliberately live as children who do not run after greatness, who receive things from their elders with gratitude, who are open to learning and accepting new things.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus initiated a special way of relationship with God dubbed as “spiritual childhood.” It begins with the idea of a relationship where trust, love, forgiveness, and generosity exist between father and child. It is the opposite of the Jansenistic picture of God, who is a punishing judge, demanding reparation, mortifications, and prayers of atonement for sins. Therese’s “little way” — in her words — “is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God as a little child expects everything from its father; it is to be disquieted about nothing, and not to be set on gaming our living. ... To be little is not attributing to oneself the virtues that one practices... It is not to become discouraged over one’s faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much.”

FIRST READING • Bar 1:15-22

During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed: “Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him. We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us. From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until the present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God, and only too ready to disregard his voice. And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant, at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt to give us the land flowing with milk and honey, cling to us even today. For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God.”

GOSPEL • LUKE 10:13-16

Jesus said to them, “ Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2021,” ST. PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.