The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us with both symbolic and real world examples of how we might have greater depth in our relationship with God and our neighbours.
The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel describes his eating of the Scroll.
* [3:3] As sweet as honey: though the prophet must foretell terrible things, the word of God is sweet to the one who receives it. (Ezekiel, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 119 praises the Glories of God’s Law.
* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them. (Psalms, PSALM 119 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus defines true greatness and teaches the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
* [18:3] Become like children: the child is held up as a model for the disciples not because of any supposed innocence of children but because of their complete dependence on, and trust in, their parents. So must the disciples be, in respect to God.
* [18:10–14] The first and last verses are peculiar to Matthew. The parable itself comes from Q; see Lk 15:3–7. In Luke it serves as justification for Jesus’ table-companionship with sinners; here, it is an exhortation for the disciples to seek out fellow disciples who have gone astray. Not only must no one cause a fellow disciple to sin, but those who have strayed must be sought out and, if possible, brought back to the community. The joy of the shepherd on finding the sheep, though not absent in Mt 18:13 is more emphasized in Luke. By his addition of Mt 18:10, 14 Matthew has drawn out explicitly the application of the parable to the care of the little ones. (Matthew, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB, n.d.)
Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that we can not come into God’s reign, and we falsely received the Eucharist when we fail to recognize that we are like all other humans, children of the Father of Mercy and dependent on the created order to provide us the place to live in this stage of our journey.
My invitation from this time of richness in the Church’s Wisdom is to accept that I am always vulnerable, depend gratefully on God for all I need, and receive the Sweetness of God’s Presence mediated by the ordinary – food and drink, human kindness, the Community of family, friends and above all the Church, and to rejoice that no child is other than “beloved” of God. (Burke-Sullivan, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “What it means to become a child a God,” by Epiphanius the Latin (late 5th century).
"Here the Lord not only repressed the apostles' thoughts but also checked the ambition of believers throughout the whole world, so that he might be great who wanted to be least. For with this purpose Jesus used the example of the child, that what he had been through his nature, we through our holy living might become - innocent, like children innocent of every sin. For a child does not know how to hold resentment or to grow angry. He does not know how to repay evil for evil. He does not think base thoughts. He does not commit adultery or arson or murder. He is utterly ignorant of theft or brawling or all the things that will draw him to sin. He does not know how to disparage, how to blaspheme, how to hurt, how to lie. He believes what he hears. What he is ordered he does not analyze. He loves his parents with full affection. Therefore what children are in their simplicity, let us become through a holy way of life, as children innocent of sin. And quite rightly, one who has become a child innocent of sin in this way is greater in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives such a person will receive Christ." (excerpt from INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 27) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14 comments that Jesus saw certain qualities in children that he wants us to have in our relationship with him. He wants us to be secure in his love for us so that we can trust him to care for our needs. He also wants us to humbly rely on his judgment of what is best for us. This isn’t always easy! We have to battle our pride and self-sufficiency. We have to look to God for answers to life’s questions rather than looking to ourselves.
This is the kind of relationship Jesus had with his Father. He did his Father’s will because he trusted in his love and goodness, even as he went to the cross. This is the kind of humble, trusting, and loving relationship Jesus wants you to have with him.
God loves and cares for you even more than any committed parent loves and cares for their child. Let that truth help you to trust the Lord and whatever he has in store for you today!
“Lord Jesus, give me the grace to become as humble and trusting as a little child.” (Meditation on Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the point of Ezekiel’s strange symbolic action in eating the Scroll and the sweetness of the Word contrasted with the sourness of the judgement of God on the people of Israel. The protection of God for the childlike trust, wonder, and awe of children reminds us of the Guardian Angel and the contemporary fad of naming the Guardian. Friar Jude reminds us of the need of the “squeaky wheel” that God wants us to participate in healing of brokenness.
James Finley names how the suffering of Julian of Norwich time resonates with that of our own. English poet and author Ann Lewin points to the tenacity of Julian’s confidence and hope. “All shall be well” is one of Julian’s best-known sayings, but we could be forgiven, perhaps, for responding, “You must be joking.” How can anyone who is aware of the reality of life say that all will be well? Christians are sometimes guilty of offering the kind of facile comfort that says, “Don’t worry, things will be better tomorrow.” Experience tells us that they may very well be worse. Julian lived at a time when there were many challenges to well-being, and she must have said “All shall be well” through gritted teeth sometimes: she knew, as we do, that it is a struggle to hold on to that belief when there is so much around us to challenge it.
[God] did not say: You will not be assailed, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted, but he said: You will not be overcome. God wants us to pay attention to his words and always to be strong in our certainty, in well-being and in woe, for he loves us and delights in us, and so he wishes us to love him and delight in him and trust greatly in him, and all will be well. [3] (Finley, n.d.)
We ponder the qualities of children and childhood to deepen our understanding of Jesus' declaration that we need to become like children to fully live today in the Kingdom.
References
Burke-Sullivan, E. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/081324.html
Ezekiel, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/3
Finley, J. (n.d.). Julian’s Confidence and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/julians-confidence/
Matthew, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18?1
Meditation on Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/08/13/1046941/
Psalms, PSALM 119 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/119?
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=aug13
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