December 2, 2025, Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Lectionary: #176, Luke 10:21-24
Scripture
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, 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. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Turning to the disciples in private, he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Reflection
The Christ of the gospels is a happy person. There are times when His happiness surges out of Him and erupts into glorious joy. Like in this passage. Why does He rejoice? Because, lo and behold, God’s friendship is not reserved for intelligent people and adults. The Father of Christ is the Father of little children. He calls them “the merest children”. He adds that the Father has “graciously willed it so.” The will of God is that children and all who resemble them in spirit should enter into God’s love and friendship.
Children don’t fit in the kingdom of God because they are innocent and without sin. After all, they are morally intact. They are prized and become the cause of Christ’s joy because they are unassuming, candid, and not too proud to depend on others. The disciples and those who resemble them struggle for a toehold on prestige, always planning for place and power and who will take the seats at his right or left. Children don’t care where they sit. Simplicity is to faith as a wing to flight.
People spend lifetimes searching for Wisdom, and there is a cache of it here. Knowledge of God comes not with the depth of learning and the sophistication of brocade. Nor is it the heritage of the obsessively simplistic. On the contrary, knowledge of Christ comes with simplicity of heart. Why does Christ rejoice IN all this? He has just seen his disciples return from a preaching mission. He sees their openness and joy in spreading the good news of Christ. Why again is Christ so utterly joyful in the Spirit? Perhaps he sees that no container can contain an ocean. But a human heart can hold the Divine. This is something to rejoice in.
Many who have known La Salette have wondered why the Lady chose Maximin and Melanie for her witnesses. She had such a choice of seers? Why on earth Maximin and Melanie? Then we realize that this is the same Lady who once sang, “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.” We are often too eager to label them as simple-minded. They were also simple-hearted, and the Lady spoke to their hearts as well as to their minds. The choice of these two children remains one of La Salette’s most significant teachings.
If we needed to know who God’s favorites are on this planet, we could look at La Salette.
La Salette Invocation
Our Lady of La Salette, reconciler of sinners,
pray without ceasing for us who have recourse to you
