Today's Gospel

The Myth of Self-Reliance

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, and 12-14. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like a child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven, their angels always behold the face of my father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep and one of them is gone, does he not leave the 99 on the hills and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."

Is there a word or phrase or an idea that jumps out at you today? Obviously, the invitation to become childlike is real, and it's a challenge for us to get our heads around that sometimes. But one thing about children is they are totally dependent on the big people around them, on the adults. And they have a sense of that. They might not be able to articulate it, but they have a sense of that. That's why kids are so vigilant. That's why kids hear everything. That's why kids see everything. Because they are dependent on the big people for their survival. So of course they're going to be listening. They're going to be watching. They're going to be tuned in. And that may be a whole subconscious thing going on, but they are subconsciously aware that they're dependent on adults for their survival, and that subconscious awareness tunes them in to everything their parents say, everything their parents do. They see and hear so much more than we're aware of. I went to a baseball game the other day with the whole family, and Maggie and a couple of the kids left early because Harry wasn't feeling great, and then the rest of us coming home. Reds had a huge win, bottom of the ninth, and big crowd there. And so we're leaving, and we walk out this door into the stairwell, and the stairwell is packed, a lot of people moving pretty quickly. And my son, Ralph, he takes my hand. In that moment, he takes my hand. And it was really interesting. In that moment, he is aware that he needs protection, that he needs to be taken care of. And what does he do? He takes my hand.

Now, as kids, right, there's a lot of times when we don't want to take our parents' hands, a lot of times when our parents want us to take their hand, and we don't want to take their hand. And that's the spiritual life too, right? There's a lot of times when God wants to take our hand, and we don't want to take His hand. And so that, I think, gives us some insight into what it means to be a child. To be a child is to be dependent. And we are, right? We are totally dependent on God for everything. If God stopped holding us in His mind for an instant, we'd just vanish, just disappear. And so our dependence on God is massive. We overlook it because we think we're self-reliant. We think we can take care of ourselves. We think, "I work hard. I get paid well. I can pay for things." Completely dependent on God. And so let's be mindful of that. When we're mindful of that, I think we move a little slower. And let's be mindful of how is God trying to take our hand and lead us in a new direction today. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.