In what way is Jesus contrasting revealing truths to the childlike and hiding them from the wise and the learned? The truth of the Gospel, which we proclaim during Advent, is that Jesus Christ united Himself to mankind as our Redeemer. We may not fully understand the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of our Lord, but we believe the Gospel with a child’s faith that God would not deceive us. This does not mean that we will never question the beliefs of our faith, but our questioning is to understand not to undermine. The wise and the learned that Jesus is referring to, question out of skepticism and unbelief, the Cross to them is absurd (see I Cor. 1:18-25). They think in their worldly wisdom that the Cross and Resurrection are just unsupportable myths that the simple-minded believe in, because they are ignorant and do not know any better. Jesus is not disparaging being wise or learned, there are many wise men who do have faith in Jesus Christ – St. Thomas Aquinas to name one of many examples. Yet as St. Thomas once declared, he learned more from prayer and contemplation than he ever did from men and books. During Advent, let us renew our confidence and trust in God’s love for us, and with child-like faith believe that God is working for our good – even if the circumstances seem to indicate otherwise. As St. Paul tells us “We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes” (Rm. 8:28).

In the second part of this passage, Jesus states that the disciples have seen and heard what many Old Testament kings and prophets wished they had seen and heard but did not. The disciples had met the Messiah in person, the greatest gift in the history of mankind. Rather than debating which of them was the greatest, which they did on several occasions, they should be thankful for the great blessing God had bestowed on them. This is also true for us. Even though we have not seen Christ in person, Christ says we are blessed because we believe even though we have not seen (see Jn. 20:29). This blessing should remind us of how thankful we should be to God for revealing to us the truth about His Son, and to share this love and revelation with others. This Advent let us ask God to deepen our faith in His love, and in turn, to be a light to other people of God’s kingdom here on earth, in the person of Jesus Christ.

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