Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 16, 2025

Matthew 11, 25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the childlike.”  As St. Thomas Aquinas points out in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus did not choose Aristotle and Plato to be his disciples, but rather Peter and Andrew.  And the Lord chose fishermen rather than philosophers to be his instruments in spreading the Gospel in order to show his power.  If a painter is skilled and has the best brushes and paints, it is not surprising when he paints a nice landscape.  We expect that from him.  But if a painter is able to make an even more beautiful picture with gummy paint and old brushes, then it is remarkable.  In the case of the Apostles, the Lord chose to use not even paints and brushes but tar and rags, and with these he painted the most wonderful, colorful, skillful painting in all of history.  This shows that he is truly God.  He chooses to spread the Gospel today through you and me.  Regardless of our worthiness or skill, if we allow him to apply us to the canvas of this world, he can continue this picture, and so bring people to stand in awe of it, and worship him.

“You have revealed them to the childlike.”  The Greek word translated here as “childlike” means “child”, “infant”, or “unlearned”.  Now, “childlike” pertains to character but “child” or “unlearned” pertains to education.  A person can be both childlike and educated, as they are very different things.  Jesus often called his followers “little ones” or “children”: “He who shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me” (Matthew 18, 6); “As long as you did it to one of these, my littlest brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25, 40).  We can see from these examples that the Lord means those who have not learned the ways of sin and so believe with a pure faith.  But since we are all sinners, how can we unlearn the ways of sin so that we can become the little ones of Jesus Christ?  Through the grace we first receive in baptism and then in the other sacraments, which enable us to do the Father’s will.  For if doing his will makes us the “brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mark 3, 35) of Jesus, certainly doing so would make us his children too.