Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Mt 11: 25-27
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations
Things Hidden and Holy
What is Jesus talking about when he refers to things hidden from the wise and learned, but revealed to the childlike? I suspect we find the answer in the passages immediately before and after our gospel today. They recount how Jesus laments the fact that many people would rather focus on compliance with the law than dive deeper into the mystery of God’s love which the law helps reveal.
It strikes me that this is also the message Pope Francis keeps bringing to our attention. While not telling us to ignore the law, he is clear that we should not become so caught up in it, that the law becomes the object of our faith. No, the object of our faith is God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Francis reminds us that God is love. This is the message we are called to share with all the people God puts in our lives each and every day.
—David McNulty works for the Midwest Jesuits. Dave and his wife Judy are grandparents of six.
Prayer
May the Father, who “has hidden these things from the wise and the learned, but has revealed them to the childlike” grant to us—to you and to me—to know and experience more deeply, day by day, the inexhaustible riches hidden in the Heart of Christ. I consider this grace of the greatest importance at this moment in the history of the Church and of the Society. Ask, and it shall be given to you!
—Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Letter to the entire Society of Jesus, April 1972.