First Reading - Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5
Gospel - Matthew 18:1-5,10 (proper)
In the first reading, Job has been asking difficult questions about his suffering. Finally, God speaks to him. But God does not give Job a simple explanation of why he suffered. Instead, God asks him a series of questions: “Have you commanded the morning since your days began?” “Have you entered into the sources of the sea?” “Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?”
God is reminding Job that there is a vastness to creation and to divine wisdom that human beings cannot comprehend.
Job finally responds, “Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.” Job does not mean that his questions were wrong. Rather, he discovers the limits of his own understanding. He learns humility before the mystery of God.
This prepares us for the Gospel. The disciples ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” They are thinking about greatness in human terms: position, recognition, importance, influence. Jesus responds by placing a child in their midst and saying, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
There is a profound connection between Job and the child in the Gospel. Job learns that he is not the centre of the universe; the disciples learn that they are not the centre of the Kingdom. Both readings invite us to move from self-importance to humility.
To become like a child does not mean becoming childish. It means recognizing that we are dependent upon God. A child does not have all the answers. A child trusts. A child receives. A child knows that he or she needs another.
Sometimes our greatest obstacle in faith is not that we have too little knowledge, but that we want to control everything. We want God to explain everything according to our timetable. We want to understand before we trust. But faith often asks us to trust before we understand.
Jesus then adds something very beautiful: “Do not despise one of these little ones.” He tells us that their angels continually behold the face of the Father. The person whom the world considers insignificant is precious in the eyes of God.
This challenges us because we often measure people according to their usefulness, success, education, status, or influence. God does not. The Kingdom of God gives special dignity to the little ones, the vulnerable, the unnoticed, and those who have no power to offer us anything in return.
Perhaps today the Lord is asking us two questions. First: Can I remain humble when I do not understand what God is doing in my life? Second: Can I recognize the dignity of those whom the world considers small or unimportant?
Job teaches us to bow before the mystery of God. Jesus teaches us to bow before the dignity of the little ones.
We do not need to understand everything in order to trust God. And we do not need to be great in the eyes of the world to be precious in the eyes of God.
May the Lord give us the humility of Job and the heart of a child: humble enough to say, “Lord, I do not understand everything,” yet trusting enough to say, “But I know that you are God”; and humble enough to recognize Christ himself in the little ones whom we encounter every day.
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