Blessed Browsers

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,

With a little child to guide them.

This Old Testament passage is truly amazing.

Nearly three thousand years ago, Isaiah could envision browsing.

And not only that; he saw that children would be the experts!

Okay, maybe that’s too modern an interpretation.

We’re in our first week of Advent.

Preparing to celebrate the coming of the Messiah.

We’re looking back two thousand years.

Isaiah was looking forward—he didn’t know how far.

But it turned out to be seven hundred years.

Then, our Gospel jumps to that very time when Jesus walked the earth.

God visiting his people.

And Jesus too points to the expertise of children.

[Father] you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,

[But] revealed them to the childlike.

What things?  The truths of faith.

Children are experts at faith.

Until they’ve seen enough of this world to have that faith shaken or destroyed.

Until they’ve questioned why bad things happen, and not found a satisfactory answer.

Until they’ve become too distracted by the material world.

Or too wise and learned—too sophisticated—to admit to spiritual truths.

Last night I watched the movie Polar Express with my four-year-old grandson.

It’s a story about holding on to our belief in Santa Claus.

A cute story, but it makes you wonder if our Big Myths might damage a child’s faith.

Well Billie, we were all just playing along with that fantastic story.

But this fantastic Gospel story really is true.

I guess most of us are able to sort that out as we grow up.

Today’s Gospel passage always makes me appreciate our position in world history.

Poor Isaiah was among those who were too early to see what Jesus’ disciples saw.

Those blessed disciples got to see and hear him in the flesh.

But still, despite what they saw, many of them couldn’t hold onto their faith.

The rich young man might have left him.

Many left him when he spoke of giving them his body and blood to eat.

One of the Twelve, Judas, left him.

We don’t get to see Jesus in that same physical presence those disciples did.

But, browsing through history, we see things they couldn’t see.

We see that his Church still survives after two thousand years.

We see the witness of saints and billions of believers who have come before us.

We see the work of truly wise and learned and spiritually inspired scholars.

We see the lives of everyday people who show us the transforming power of childlike faith.

Blessed are the eyes that see what [we] see.

Tuesday 1st Week of Advent

Lk 10:21-24                                   Read this Scripture @usccb.org