When was the last time you let God surprise you? (If you want you can answer me in the comments). As long as you observe God with the gaze of an adult you will never be able to understand him. Have you ever tried to look at it through the eyes of a child?
Saint Matthew offers us, with this Gospel passage, the prayer of Jesus: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and have revealed them to little ones” (v. 25). The Son of God is amazed to see how children and simple people are able to grasp and welcome his Word. And this pleasant amazement turns into a prayer of thanks.
And you, when did you last let yourself be surprised by God? It is beautiful to be amazed by God’s actions. Because God breaks our patterns, undermines our plans, and tells us: “trust me, don’t be afraid, let yourself be surprised, come out of yourself and follow me!”. Yes, this is what we need: the innocence of knowing how to recognize the beauty of life with God in your heart. Be amazed by a ray of sunshine, because we realize that God himself created it for us. Be amazed by the beauty of the nature that surrounds us, because God made it pleasant for us. Marvel at the rising moon or the twinkling of a star…
Have you seen how many things can amaze us even in simplicity? In each of them we can trace the presence of God. He hides in a cloud, which takes on a thousand shapes driven by the wind. God hides in a falling leaf and a sprouting flower. Everything around you is inhabited by God: “every good thing and every perfect gift come from above and descend from the Father of luminous stars with whom there is no variation or shadow of change” (James 1.17).
Thus we discover that, to see God, we must look at him with the eyes of children; we must find the gaze of the many innocent people who still allow themselves to be amazed, without allowing evil to steal their imagination, the joy of living, the ability to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. “You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and have revealed them to the little ones” (v. 25).
God belongs to the little ones. Small in age, like innocent and curious children, who seek it. But God is also one of the “big little ones”that is, those who, being simple and humble of heart, surpass any giant in moral and spiritual stature.
I think about Saint Franciswho cringed undressing of everything and filling oneself with love for the Creator, the created creation and his creatures. It comes to mind Saint Teresa of Calcutta, God’s little pencil, drop in the ocean of goodness. And it comes to mind Saint Catherine of Sienapatroness of Italy and co-patron of Europe, who showed the signs of her holiness at the age of twelve.
We must not forget that the “smallness” to which Jesus refers is neither measured with a yardstick, nor with chronological age, but with humility. Thus, the little one is the one who knows how to lower himself. Who knows how to question themselves. Who does not cling to comfortable preconceptions, but he is ready to admit that he is not always right. Who knows how to say “I’m sorry”. Who knows how to “think” also with the heart and not just with the mind. He who always feels like a child in the eyes of God and, just like a child, is capable of entrusting himself totally to Him and to His Word.
Yes, because it is not easy to understand God. And our smallness also lies in this: knowing how to trust Him even when we really cannot understand Him. Shall we do an experiment? Let’s try to reach, even if only in fantasy and for a single moment, Mount Calvary in the darkest moment of the world:
Look at those threatening, dark clouds gathering on the horizon. Listen to the roar of thunder, which merges with the sound of the earth cracking and shaking under your feet. Heavy boulders tumble along the slopes. The entire world seems to unite in a single, agonizing groan of pain. Look into the eyes of these people who, for various reasons, stand beneath the Cross: no one, absolutely no one, at that moment, understood that what they were experiencing was not the last chapter of the book of God. No. Because after the Cross, under which we also find ourselves now, there is the Resurrection!
If you think about it carefully, you will discover that the whole life of Jesus, from his birth in a manger, to his childhood in the carpenter’s shop, to his maturity between the Sea of Galilee and the desert, on foot, “without even a place to rest your head” (see Luke 9, 51-62), up to the flagellation and death on the Cross, it is a life lived in the name of unexpected humility, of surprising calmness, of disarming smallness.
Why did I bring you here today? Because I want to understand, together with you, that God’s logic escapes our reasoning. That we are too “small” to understand how God reasons, what he thinks, why he behaves in a way that we are often unable to understand. Because Jesus, humble on the Cross, in silence conquered the world (see John 16.33) and defeated death with his Resurrection. And no one understood it. Maybe not even us, in our hearts.
Do you want to understand God better? Come back child! Rediscover the authenticity and purity of simple things. Remember how to feel amazed at a flower that blooms or at a firefly that lights up the darkness of the night. It is truly necessary to resemble those children that Jesus loves and caresses (see Mark 10:16), and who are happy to be loved by Him. Because the infinite cannot be understood by measuring it, but by contemplating it with the heart!
Source: La Buona Parola, Alessandro Ginotta’s blog https://www.labuonaparola.it
YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/AlessandroGinotta
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