Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say, “I give praise to you, 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.”

What does Jesus mean here? It is very simple. People who think they know God, or think they know more than God, actually don’t know anything about God at all. But those who are childlike – humble and always trusting in the Lord – know more about God than the prideful person.

St. Bonaventure, whose feast day we celebrate today, says it best, “As ‘pride is the beginning of all sin,’ (Eccl. x, 15) so humility is the foundation of all virtue. Learn to be really humble and not, as the hypocrite, humble merely in appearance.” This means, don’t be like the Pharisee in Luke’s Gospel account, when he prays, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.” But instead be like the Tax Collector whose head was lowered and would beat his chest and say, “Lord God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The Pharisee puffed up with pride, and even humiliating the tax collector, trusted in himself, while the tax collector, kneeling off in the corner like a child, knowing he cheated others, and humbly admitting his fault to the Lord, could only say with downcast eyes “Lord God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

I challenge you today to let go of all of your worries and anxieties and place all of your trust in the Lord. I know this is very hard. There are times when I want to get into the driver seat and take control of my life, but we have to humbly realize that Jesus is the driver, and he will take us down roads that we don’t want to go. It is in those moments when we can look to the saints as our models who went down many of the same roads we travel.

Reflection by Br. Maximilian Burkhart, OSB