Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

“I give praise to you,” Jesus says, “because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned.” What? Is he glad at the loss of those who don't believe in him? Certainly not. How wonderful are God's designs for people's salvation! When they turn away from the truth and refuse to accept it, God never forces them but lets them be. Their wandering away stimulates them to find the path again. Returning to their senses, they hastily seek out the grace of the call to faith they had rejected before. As for those who had remained faithful, their devotion becomes even stronger like this. So Christ is glad these things are revealed to some but saddened they are hidden from others. This is made known when he weeps over the city (Lk 19:41). Saint Paul writes in the same spirit: “Thanks be to God! You were once slaves of sin but you have become obedient from the heart” to the Gospel (Rom 6:17). (...) Who are the wise Jesus is talking about here? The scribes and the Pharisees. He says this to hearten his disciples by showing them of what privileges they have been accounted worthy. Simple fishermen that they are, they have received the illumination that the wise and learned despised. These latter are wise in name only; they think themselves wise but are false scholars. That is why Christ did not say: “You have revealed them to the ignorant” but to “the childlike”, that is to say, simple, honest people. (...) In this way he teaches us to utterly renounce important things and seek out simplicity. Saint Paul goes even further: “If anyone considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool so as to become wise” (1Cor 3:18).

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Wednesday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407)

"You have revealed them to the childlike"

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