Praise of the Father

Today's Reflections

          

Praise of the Father 

http://graceandspace.org

Lk 10:21-24

²¹[Jesus] rejoiced [in] the holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, 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. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. ²²All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

²³Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. ²⁴For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Reflection:

You have revealed them to the childlike. Francis Xavier was one of the first Jesuits. He went to preach the Gospel in the unknown Fast East: India, Ceylon, and Japan. He was a missionary who witnessed the truth of the words of Jesus: “I give you praise, Father… for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”

Francis wrote to St. Ignatius, “I bathed in the waters of baptism all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand, ‘The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ ”

If you want to know Jesus and his Father,

be childlike and believe in simplicity of heart.