Little Ones

The other day, I was in a museum gift shop.

A little girl, about five years old, was looking at a large butterfly encased in a plastic cube.

And two little boys were looking at books nearby.

She turned to them and said, I’ve seen a butterfly like that.

One of the little boys, of similar age, answered her, I’ve seen lots of them.

To which she responded, Well I’ve seen hundreds.

He said, I’ve seen thousands.

She upped the ante, I’ve probably seen a million.

At that point, the other boy, slightly older, joined in with a sarcastic, Sure you have.

Are these the humble little children Jesus was talking about in today’s Gospel?

They sound more like the disciples.

Concerned over who’s the greatest, who can outdo whom?

Kids were much the same two thousand years ago.

So, Jesus wasn’t holding that child out as the model of perfect humility.

He was using the child as a model of truly humble status.

A person fully dependent on someone else.

A person who doesn’t have all the answers.

A person unable to make it, to even survive, without help.

A person who, at least deep-down, sees and acknowledges that dependence.

Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?

What an inappropriate question!

What a lack of understanding of what heaven is about.

But maybe we have to give the disciples a break.

What’s obvious to us now, wasn’t so obvious to them.

Unlike us, they hadn’t yet heard all that Jesus would teach about heaven.

So he teaches them.

Your ambition is to be recognized as greater than the others in heaven?

You imagine you have the power and ability to earn such a position for yourself?

With that attitude, you can’t even get through the gate.

You’ve got to drop that ambition and self assurance.

And acknowledge that you’re as powerless and dependent as this little child.

Of course, that applies to us today as well.

We’ve been blessed with so many gifts.

The gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of Jesus’ teaching, the gift of salvation.

We didn’t do anything to earn them.

They can’t be earned; they’re gifts.

We are in fact like that child Jesus called over, fully dependent upon someone else.

Fully dependent upon those gifts.

We are in fact the little ones that Jesus spoke of.

Our job is to recognize and acknowledge that.

And to appreciate and cooperate with the gifts we’ve been given.

To do all we can in our poor limited power to get ourselves through that gate.

And not to push ahead of as many as we can, but to help along as many as we can.

To not only be the little ones, but also receive the little ones.

It’s good to be counted among the little ones.

There’s Good News and great consolation for us.

Especially if we should happen to go astray.

Jesus assures us that our heavenly Father will come looking for us.

He’ll rejoice at bringing us back.

And best of all, it is not His will that even one of us be lost.

Tuesday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 18:1~14           Read this Scripture @usccb.org