Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 9, 2022
The disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever becomes humble like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost.”
To follow Jesus’ advice requires that we learn to “become like children.” Considering Matthew’s Gospel as a whole, we can understand what this instruction means by looking at Jesus’ childhood.
Jesus was born, as are all infants, into a world of vulnerability and total dependency on his parents. However, Jesus was also born into a world of significant risk—an active threat to his life—requiring that his family depend entirely on God for safety through the difficulties of journeying to Egypt.
To become like children, Jesus urges us to embrace this world of vulnerability in the face of enormous risk by becoming radically dependent on God and the care of our earthly communities throughout our lives.
Such a challenge might daunt us—understandably so—but Jesus’ words remind us that this view of becoming like children is not a binary “either-or” scenario. On the contrary, to become implies ongoing development, paralleling the journey the good shepherd undertakes to rescue the lost sheep in the following verses.
Rather than an “either-or” model, where either we are lost or we are found (where we either succeed in being “like a child” or we fail at the task), we should consider a “both-and” model instead. We are constantly learning to become like children, and our development is ongoing.
Faithful Christians should always strive to “become like children,” recognizing that God calls to us in our daily failures to be vulnerable and dependent on God and others, as much as rejoices to see us growing as we move deeper into the challenge of living the words of the gospel.
Prayer
Loving God—the shepherd who seeks us always. In your kingdom where the last are first and the first are last, may humility flow like a river to remove the pride that keeps us from being your children. May we trust in you alone. Grant this in the name of Christ our Lord and Brother. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Edith Stein was a brilliant philosopher who came to the Catholic faith through her intellectual pursuit of the truth.
She was born to a large Jewish family in Poland in 1891 and was an extraordinary student. She earned her doctorate in philosophy at the age of 25, and it was the witness of some of her friends that initially invited her to consider the Christian faith. She saw the strength of their faith and began studying the Catholic tradition. She converted and later became a Carmelite nun and taught in European universities as a member of the intellectual elite.
Her order relocated her to a convent in Holland because of her Jewish heritage, but she was eventually hunted down by the Nazis and was killed in a gas chamber in Auschwitz in 1942.
St. Edith Stein is the patron saint of Europe. Her story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Edith Stein, you searched for truth in philosophy and found Catholicism before being killed by the Nazis—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Edith Stein is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.