Fore-feast of the Procession of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord; Holy and Just Eudocimus (840)
Romans 15:30-33; Matthew 17:24-18:4
Read Matthew 17:24-18:4
Belonging. Often when asked what it is that young people are searching for in Church or in other social settings, the response is often that they are searching for a place to belong: a community which accepts them and a community which needs them as much as they are needed and accepting. In today’s gospel we see what it means to be part of the community of believers, what it means to belong to the kingdom of heaven: humility and simplicity.
A child in the time if Jesus held no political or financial power. A child was a liability in that it could not work to support itself and still needed to be supported by its parents. It was not uncommon for a Roman father, having seen a displeasing child born to them to abandon the child exposed to the elements to die. A child is vulnerable, simple, open, holding no sway, and entirely dependent upon its fathers for its life.
In belonging to heaven, brothers and sisters, we must make ourselves poor in the eyes of the world and simple in the eyes of the sophisticated. Belonging to Christ will never make sense in the eyes of the world, which are trained on prestige, success, and power. Let us humble ourselves like children and so rely more on our Heavenly Father who loves us.
St. Jerome writes: Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Whoever lives so as to imitate Christ’s humility and innocence, in him Christ is taken up. And he is careful to add—so that when the apostles heard of it, they would not think that they had been honoured—that they would not be taken up for their merit but for the honour of the master. Commentary on Matthew 3.18.5. [CCL 77:157.]