To the humble, God is truly revealed (HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II (JULY 17 2024)

HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II (JULY 17 2024)

Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16; Ps. 94; Matthew 11:25-27

To the humble, God is truly revealed

In the first reading of today, Assyria is condemned because she trusted in her might and ascribed to herself all that the Lord had done for and through her. She became a god unto herself. By this very fact, she became foolish, for Ps. 14:1 puts it clearly: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’…”. She was foolish, for although she was great, she forgot that the Lord made her great. Failure to acknowledge the presence and workings of God in our lives will make us think and feel that we can do without Him.

In the prayer made by Jesus to his heavenly Father in the gospel, we see that God is attracted towards humility. He is moved when we acknowledge and live by the truth of our dependence on him, for only then can we be prayerful; the proud is never motivated to pray.

The image of infants is used to depict the humility that makes us truly wise because children are known for their dependence on elders. An average little child is convinced that his/her father is the strongest person in the world. That is why when you offend a child, he/she may say to you “I will tell Daddy for you”. Indeed, when “daddy” returns home, the child is careful enough to report to daddy all those who have offended him/her during the course of the day.

The child does not border to fight his offenders because he knows how limited he is in strength. Also, after daddy has brought him the expected justice, he does not boast of his own might; rather he boasts that he has the strongest daddy.

As time progresses, the child will come to realize that the father is not the strongest person in the world, and that sometimes the father was only pretending to be confronting those who annoyed the child (just to satisfy the child’s trust in him). Yet, the child will not be disappointed with these discoveries for he would have also realized that his child-like convictions made him learn that violence is not the best way to resolve conflict.

Beloved, when we learn to trust and follow God with the innocence of little children, we will never be disappointed. Things may not always go according to our calculations but things will always go in the best calculated way. The responsorial psalm makes it clear that God will not abandon his people. The more we realize our dependence on God, the more he reveals himself to us. The humble are truly wise.