I love children. I love how they can have no biases. They may fight one moment but can be the best of friends in the next second. They’d be hugging and kissing each other, totally forgetting what they fought about. 

They also trust unconditionally. A parent can ask his child, who doesn’t know how to swim, to jump to the pool into his waiting arm. Without any hesitation, the child will do so. 

These are the very qualities one needs to be able to encounter God. We should be free of biases, ready to depend on God, and trust Him completely. 

The wise and intelligent can be full of themselves and believe that they are able to do things because of their capabilities. But it is not to these that God reveals Himself. As our verse says, it is to the infants—helpless, reliant on others, and innocent—that God has revealed His heavenly wisdom. Reng D. Morelos (norinamorelos@gmail.com)

 Reflect:

Were there instances in your life that you relied on your own wisdom without consulting God? Compare the outcome to a time when you prayed and consulted the Lord. 

Lord, I may be worldly wise, but I need Your wisdom more. Guide me.

Saint Alexis, pray for us.

We are moral authors of our actions, and we are responsible for them. A gun does not kill a person. A gun is used by the killer to shoot another. Our actions reveal the type of person we are. We say that someone is a caring person because we have seen them care for others. 

⁵ Thus says the Lord: Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath. ⁶ Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him to seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets. ⁷ But this is not what he intends, nor does he have this in mind; rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of nations not a few. ¹³ “By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples, their treasures I have pillaged, and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned. ¹⁴ My hand has seized like a nest the riches of nations; as one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; no one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!” ¹⁵ Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wood! ¹⁶ Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire. 

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15

R: The Lord will not abandon his people. 

⁵ Your people, O Lord, they trample down, your inheritance they afflict. ⁶ Widow and stranger they slay, the fatherless they murder. (R) ⁷ And they say, “The Lord sees not; the God of Jacob perceives not.” ⁸ Understand, you senseless ones among the people; and, you fools, when will you be wise? (R) ⁹ Shall he who shaped the ear not hear? or he who formed the eye not see? ¹⁰ Shall he who instructs nations not chastise, he who teaches men knowledge? (R) ¹⁴ For the Lord will not cast off his people, nor abandon his inheritance; ¹⁵ but judgment shall again be with justice, and all the upright of heart shall follow it. (R) 

Gospel | Matthew 11:25-27

Let us have the heart of little children when we approach the throne room of God. It is a sure way of gaining access to Him. Little children have not yet learned the ways of arrogance and pride and, thus, will always have easy access to God. Once pride and the rest of the sins set into our lives, we find it a lot more difficult to approach Him. This is more due to our shame at our sinfulness than to any other reason. 

Gospel Acclamation

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom. 

²⁵ 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. ²⁶ Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. ²⁷ 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.” 

Read the Bible in one year! Read PSALMS 51 - 55 today.

God is One and Only above all—because His sovereignty is unfathomable. We can indeed begin to know Him and His ways, especially as His graciousness makes Him reveal Himself. But then, He is totally Other. He is all-knowing, omnipresent, all-powerful. We must stress with certainty: even Satan and his minions are subject to God who is Creator of all.

Nothing happens that God does not know—good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. We, however, need to reflect on these: 

While all good things generally flow from the benevolence of God, He is a Father who loves us as His children. He desires only what is best for us. Good things that do not lead to virtues but to perdition are therefore not His. 

Unpleasant events may be willed by God to discipline us or to deepen and mature some natural and supernatural virtues in us. Some unpleasant situations may not be the result of God’s will but consequences of human willfulness and decision. But God permits these for some foreseen “good” (external or internal) on the part of the persons involved. 

The point: God knows and sees all. Nothing is accidental for Him. Nothing escapes His full knowledge and wisdom. 

Face to face with God’s unfathomable sovereignty, our human heart and mind need to have the following: 

The disposition of praise. It lightens our heart and makes us submit to God’s superior power, ever-confident that His love surrounds everything that He causes or allows to happen. Praise makes us rest our case in God, with joyfulness and graciousness. 

The pleasant persona of a child. The human strengths of the child, such as carefreeness, strong trust in another, openness to receive, and teachability, make us willing recipients of whatever it is that God allows to happen—because He is already there. Fr. Domie Guzman, SS

Reflection Question:

Make an inventory of unfinished events in your life. Submit the events before God for resolution. 

Dearest Lord, I trust that whatever events I may be in or whatever circumstances may befall me, You are already there, ready to turn the bad for my own good. Amen.

Today, I pray: __________________________________