Gospel Reading: Mt 11:25-27
At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
YOU HAVE HIDDEN THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND THE LEARNED
Jesus amazingly gives thanks in prayer that God is gathering around him a community of the lowly, the poor, and the weak, even if this inevitably means rejection by the mighty, the rich, and the self-sufficient. God has chosen to reveal the saving knowledge of the Gospel to the most unlikely of candidates, to infants (that is, to spiritual babies), and to hide it from the very people who consider themselves learned in the ways of God (the scribes, the Pharisees, the noble cities of Israel). Instead of appealing to the whole of Israel, Jesus increasingly will focus upon his disciples, carrying out his mission by building upon the smaller community of “little ones.”
No human being really knows who Jesus is, not in the full sense – not John, not the scribes and the Pharisees, not the unrepentant towns, not the wavering crowds, not even the disciples. God is the only one who truly knows who Jesus is: “No one knows the Son except the Father” (v 27). Likewise, no human being, save Jesus, fully knows God: “No one knows the Father except the Son” (v 27).
God remains Lord over human history, and no amount of rejection even by the powerful can thwart God’s intention to save.
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SOURCE: “366 Days with the Lord,” ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
