A child does not know how to read or do calculus. He does not know how to engineer, litigate, teach or write a business plan. Neither does he have a busy schedule, a contingency plan, a to-do list, or self-improvement projects. A child has none of this valuable wisdom. A child barely has the sense to avoid danger. A child has only has one kind of wisdom. He has faith that someone desires what is good for him, and that someone will deliver what is best for him.
Jesus proposes to His disciples that all other wisdom is rubbish compared to this wisdom possessed by a child. Pope Benedict in his personal reflections on the life of Jesus, said that understanding the uniqueness of Christ is to understand that He is the one who always sees the face of His heavenly Father. He is thus the one who always remains a child in relationship to His Father. Jesus never forgets that His Father will take care of Him. Jesus proclaims Himself to be the one who knows the Father. He is the one who can reveal to us how to remain as children before the Father.
Prophets and kings desired to see one who was sent by the Father to be the Messiah. They wanted to see the Son of God, most likely because of the awesome power such a figure would bring with Him. Whether they knew it or not, what they watned to see was one who because He was sent from the Father could live with perfect trust, dependence and obedience to the will of the Father. This promised Messiah however they did not see. The disciples to whom Jesus is talking are seeing the Son of God. In seeing Jesus, they are privileged to see how much greater is the freedom of one who always remains a child before God. Jesus' trust in the goodness of His Father allowed Him to always remain a child, and to be the baby who is always able to play by the cobra's den without fear, from the moment of his birth in Bethlehem to his trial before Pilate, to His willingness today to be crucified for our sins. He does all of this with the faith of a child, knowing only that the Father desires His good, and will not allow evil to have the final say.
Even as we increase our freedom through learning, discerning and praying, Jesus invites us to remember that the greatest freedom comes from the greatest faith, the faith of a child. The greatest wisdom is trusting that God our Father sees us, even when we do not see Him, and that He knows our good and desires our good and delivers our good. We prepare this Advent to welcome the light that scatters the darkness of failed human wisdom. A little child born in Bethlehem will bring with Him the wisdom and the justice of God! +m
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