Struggle to be open

The challenge of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary is to become great in the Kingdom of God through a journey which is a return to innocence and a sense of awe and wonder which requires us to struggle to trust and surrender our defenses. Andy Alexander SJ recalls playground experiences which were part of that erosion from our young self of the openness and freedom of children which Jesus uses to instruct His disciples about Life which is intimate with God. The nature of children to be intimate and open certainly has had consequences in modern time whereby they have been taken advantage of and abused, however, it is the attitude of acceptance of others which is the primary step in our commission from Jesus. Our mission to have others be disciples of Jesus presupposes we accept them as they are into our circles. The Gospel today proposes action which is deeply counter cultural as Jesus tells us to search for the one even when we have the ninety-nine with us. The quota and the satisfactory result for God is Life for all. Irene Nowell reviews the role of the Prophet Ezekiel who presents images of God to the exiles from Jerusalem in Babylon which make it clear that the consequence of the decisions made by Judah to cease to trust God brought lamentation, wailing and woe as Jerusalem is sacked and the Temple is destroyed by the Babylonian forces. The promise from Ezekiel that the Covenant and the intimacy of God and the Israelites would be restored points to our struggle to abandon the power, privilege and pleasure-seeking which is characteristic of “adult” relationships in favour of openness, sharing and trust which are the qualities of our younger selves.