Reading
Matthew 11:25-27
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Comment
There is a certain sarcasm in Jesus' words, which distinguish the doctors of the law - considered wise and learned - from his disciples, simple men, who are compared here to children (Gr. Nepios). Both witness the same miracles and hear the same words, but only to those who place themselves with a humble attitude God - who "opposes the proud" (Jas 4:6) - reveals the truth about the Messiah and his Gospel.
In the first letter of the apostle Peter, we are exhorted to respond consciously to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Pt 3:15); several centuries later Anselm of Aosta was the bearer of that theological approach according to which faith leads us to reflect on it and every genuine reflection on man and creation predisposes us to accept faith.
The blessing of Jesus to the Father because he kept the things of the Kingdom hidden from the wise and the learned does not represent a mortification of reason, but the reorganization of all theology, in the awareness of his being nothing more than stammering in front of God.
This was the attitude of Thomas Aquinas, when at the end of his life, after having completed the monumental Summa Theologiae, affirmed that all his speculations seemed to him only "straw"; and this was the impression of the Protestant theologian Karl Barth when, after publishing the incomplete thirteenth volume of his Dogmatic Theology, he affirmed: "When the day comes when I must appear in the presence of my Lord, then I will not come with my actions, with the volumes of my Dogmatics in the bag on the shoulders. All the angels would laugh at it".
The authentic search for God moves from humility and leads to even greater humility. "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven". (Mt 18:3) Jesus affirms. Only the awareness of one's own smallness, of one's nothingness, only a complete kenosis, total self-denial, can lead to theosis, to divinization, to the knowledge of God in God.
Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Wisdom that alone knows the Father; give us a humble heart, so that we can know the divine secrets and raise our prayer of praise. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
