Tuesday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 13, 2024

Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.  See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father. What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”

In the the question posed by the disciples, we see that a certain tension among them has come to a head.  A little time before, Jesus had announced to Peter that he would be the rock on which he would build his Church.  Then came the event of the Transfiguration, in which the Lord had taken only Peter, James, and John with him.  Following this, the nine Apostles had failed to exorcise a demon from a child.  And then came the episode in which Jesus told Peter to take a coin from the mouth of a fish he had caught and to pay the temple tax with it for them both.  It would have seemed that Jesus favored some followers over others, or that some possessed powers or authority others did not.  The question arises for them: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  To their credit, they do not ask, Who is the greatest in this world? which would reveal a preoccupation with power and glory that did not belong to a follower of the Lord Jesus.

Perhaps the Apostles were actually asking, Who, Lord, is the most important of us to you?  But they would have seen the foolishness of such a direct question.  The question that they do ask is well thought-out: Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?  They do not ask who is the greatest in heaven, or who is the greatest in Christ’s subjective opinion, but who is the greatest in the kingdom and what are his qualities.  Already, the Lord had told them: “Amen I say to you, there has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11).  So who could this be?  What did it take to be “the greatest” in the kingdom?

The answer Jesus gives has nothing to do with power, charisma, ability, or any particular talent.  Instead, it is about virtue and service: holiness.  Jesus called a little child (as per the meaning of the Greek word) and pointed him out as the model for this “greatness”.  This had nothing to do with the particular child’s goodness or lack thereof, but with the innocence we associate with children.  For instance, a little child does not lust, or desire to kill, or to enslave others.  A little child of seven or eight (according to the usage of the word) in ancient times was learning to obey and to help out in the family business.  Duty was impressed upon a child from a very young age in those days, out of dire necessity.  At the same time, a child of this age had no rights and his existence depended upon his parents as well as the absence of disease, famine, and civil strife.  Of these things the child was very much made aware.

And so, virtue and duty are the hallmarks of the true follower of Christ, of one who is “great” in the kingdom of heaven.  The awareness of one’s own lowliness is key to this because it fosters gratitude to Christ for every gift received and a desire to serve the Lord in others: “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.”  Although this parable may sound straightforward to us, it is complicated by the fact that most owners of flocks would not in fact abandon their ninety-nine sheep to look for one.  To leave their sheep like this was to open up the chance for a wolf to scatter them and to kill a few.  We must suppose here that the owner had trustworthy shepherds working for him with whom they could leave the bulk of his animals.  In such a case they could hunt far and wide for the lost sheep without worrying that they would lose their flocks.  Such an owner rejoices to have found it alive and unhurt because of the sheep who were already safe, but it is true joy.

The “kingdom of heaven” and the “flock” both signify the Church.  Let us strive for holiness so that, in virtue and service, we may become “great” in the eyes of our Lord.