Tuesday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 9, 2022

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.”

This Gospel Reading is chopped up from St. Matthew’s Gospel, so to avoid confusion a space separates the two main elements.  In the first of these, the disciples ask Jesus a strange question: “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”  It is strange because it is not clear what they mean by “the greatest”, and because there seems little point to it.  But what they are really asking the Lord is about who will serve as his lieutenants in the restored Kingdom of Israel.  Is it Peter?  Is it Thomas?  The Lord’s answer must have confused them: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  The disciples were looking for a general or a second-in-command, and Jesus gives them a small child of no account.  But not really even this child: “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”  The Lord is saying that greatness in the Kingdom of heaven does not depend on military prowess or experience in governing; it depends on humility.  The disciples must have wondered greatly at how humility qualified a person to be great in the Kingdom.  How is the Virgin Mary a greater leader than an Alexander the Great would have been?  It is the one who overcomes himself that is the greatest: “The patient man is better than the valiant: and he that rules his spirit, than he who conquers cities” (Proverbs 16, 32).  That is, the greatest in the Kingdom is not the one who most completely forces his will on others, but who subdues his will to do the will of God.

“And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”  The one who receives — welcomes — one of my humble followers welcomes me.  Saying this to his disciples, he challenges them to become humble so that they are no longer his disciples according to their own terms but according to his.  

“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.”  The Lord does not speak of children here but of the meek and humble among his disciples.  We might think of Mary of Bethany, who sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to him teach her.  We might think also of Zachaeus, who do not think it beneath him to climb a tree in order to catch a glimpse of the Lord, despite his prominent position in his town.  Their true dignity came not from their own accomplishments in this world but for their humbling themselves.  Their angels stand in the presence of God, presenting them to him, and one day they themselves would stand in his presence.  We see early traces of the belief among the Jews in guardian angels among the Jews from Daniel 12, 1, where Michael is described as the angelic guardian of Israel; and in the Book of Tobit, in which Raphael guides and  protects Tobias and Sarah.  By the time of Jesus, the belief was ready to be fully articulated, as the Lord does here.

“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?”  Although this take the form of a rhetorical question, the Lord provides an answer for it.  His answer is that the man will certainly do so.  Note that the man leaves the ninety-nine sheep “in the hills”, implying that the lost sheep has gone into the valley.  Thus, leading his disciples into the heights of faith and virtue, one sheep chooses another path and “descends” to where it will be exposed to all sorts of dangers.  Once he recovers it, the man raises the sheep back to the heights.  The sheep must want to go with the man, however.  If it runs from him and falls into a pit and becomes mortally injured, the man will have to leave it there.  A person must want to return to faith and virtue before he can.  Faith does not return to him, but he to it.  The return of the sheep leads to rejoicing — it is the triumph of the owner, who went and successfully brought it back.

“In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”  It is not a matter of indifference to God whether or not we are saved.  He did not create us to be damned, but to be saved.  He so desperately, as it were, wants us in heaven that he sent his Son to die for us to make this possible.  He will do anything to bring us to eternal life with him.  All we have to do is follow his Son.