Dec. 1, 2015 Tuesday: 1st. Week of Advent
Dec. 1, 2015 Tuesday: 1st Week of Advent
The words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading are rather confusing. He says: “I give you praise, Father…for although you have hidden these from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” Obviously we should not take these words literally. What Jesus meant is that He reveals Himself to people whose hearts are open and humble or who have childlike simplicity and not to those who are proud and arrogant.
Childlike simplicity knows how to trust in God as the Father and this is what we need today. It is because of the complaints of this 10-year-olds Sunday School Class of Mrs. Imogene Frost class that I read in their views of “What’s wrong with grownups?” at the Brookside, N.J. Community. Their complaints were:
Grownups make promises, then they forget all about them or else they say it wasn’t really a promise, just a maybe.
Grownups don’t do the things they’re always telling the children to do like pick up their things or be neat or always tell the truth.
Grownups never really listen to what children have to say. They always decide ahead of time what they’re going to answer.
Grownups make mistakes, but they won’t admit them. They always pretend that they weren’t mistakes at all or that somebody else made them.
Grownups interrupt children all the time and think nothing of it. If a child interrupts a grownup, he gets a scolding or something worse.
Grownups never understand how much children want a certain thing, a certain color or shape or size. If it’s something they don’t admire, even if the children have spent their own money for it, they always say, “I can’t imagine what you want with that old thing!”
Sometimes grownups punish children unfairly. It isn’t right if you’ve done just some little thing wrong and grownups take away something that means an awful lot to you. Other times you can do something really bad and they say they’re going to punish you, but they don’t. You never know, and you ought to know.
Grownups are always talking about what they did and what they knew when they were 10 years old but they never try to think what it’s like to be 10 years old right now. (From: J.A. Petersen, ed., For Families Only, Tyndale, 1977, p. 253)
But what is more important is that we must be Christ-like. An unknown author said: “When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, ‘I do not want to be like a Paul…or any mere man. I want to be like Christ…I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints…Oh, to be more like Christ!’”
Fr. Joseph Benitez
https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/tuesday-of-the-1st-week-of-advent/
The words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading are rather confusing. He says: “I give you praise, Father…for although you have hidden these from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” Obviously we should not take these words literally. What Jesus meant is that He reveals Himself to people whose hearts are open and humble or who have childlike simplicity and not to those who are proud and arrogant.
Childlike simplicity knows how to trust in God as the Father and this is what we need today. It is because of the complaints of this 10-year-olds Sunday School Class of Mrs. Imogene Frost class that I read in their views of “What’s wrong with grownups?” at the Brookside, N.J. Community. Their complaints were:
Grownups make promises, then they forget all about them or else they say it wasn’t really a promise, just a maybe.
Grownups don’t do the things they’re always telling the children to do like pick up their things or be neat or always tell the truth.
Grownups never really listen to what children have to say. They always decide ahead of time what they’re going to answer.
Grownups make mistakes, but they won’t admit them. They always pretend that they weren’t mistakes at all or that somebody else made them.
Grownups interrupt children all the time and think nothing of it. If a child interrupts a grownup, he gets a scolding or something worse.
Grownups never understand how much children want a certain thing, a certain color or shape or size. If it’s something they don’t admire, even if the children have spent their own money for it, they always say, “I can’t imagine what you want with that old thing!”
Sometimes grownups punish children unfairly. It isn’t right if you’ve done just some little thing wrong and grownups take away something that means an awful lot to you. Other times you can do something really bad and they say they’re going to punish you, but they don’t. You never know, and you ought to know.
Grownups are always talking about what they did and what they knew when they were 10 years old but they never try to think what it’s like to be 10 years old right now. (From: J.A. Petersen, ed., For Families Only, Tyndale, 1977, p. 253)
But what is more important is that we must be Christ-like. An unknown author said: “When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, ‘I do not want to be like a Paul…or any mere man. I want to be like Christ…I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints…Oh, to be more like Christ!’”
Fr. Joseph Benitez
https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/tuesday-of-the-1st-week-of-advent/
