Be a Little one

Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

We live in a world where many people want to be the best, want to achieve the highest, and desire to be the greatest before others.

In one class in my seminary, my professor asked us a question. Who is the greatest one in the community? We came up with many answers, like it is the guy who gives much or does many great things. Finally, the professor answered, "It is the one who is the humblest as a little one."

In the Gospel, the wise and the learned are arrogant scribes or Pharisees who consider themselves righteous and have much knowledge. They are like closed vessels, which nothing can be poured into them.

But who is the little one? They are the lowly people, like slaves, widows, orphans, and the sick abandoned by society. The little ones often have a simple and humble attitude, knowing they are limited, broken, and dependent; they always open their hearts to listen to God's words like a dry land waiting for rain.

The history of the Church shows that God always shows favor to little ones. His way is so different from the way of the world. While the world selects those who are learned and great, God chooses those little ones to do great works.

The first apostles are fishermen, Mother Mary, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In the first reading, we see Moses, who was a shepherd, and God called him, and Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?" but God answered, "I will be with you."

Even those considered wise and learned saints like St. Augustine and St. Paul Apostle, but before God, they identified themselves as little ones so that God may be with them and work in them. St. Paul states, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell with me; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

The most outstanding example is Jesus Christ, who is the wisest, the greatest, and who is God himself, but identified himself as a little one before the Father and even before humanity. Jesus took a lowly human form to share our human lowliness so we may share his divine greatness. That is the whole point of our Christian life that God comes down from on high to become like us to make us like him.

Jesus continues identifying himself as the little one among us at this very altar by giving us his Body and Blood every time we celebrate the Mass. Whenever the Mass is celebrated, Jesus comes down from heaven to be the little one, in the form of the Eucharist, so that we may share the heavenly greatness.

We are called to be the "little one," the "childlike" who humbly recognize that we are limited, powerless, and broken before God so that God's power may work in us.

Our reflecting question for today is, am I wise and learned one before the world or to a little one before God?