Homily of His Excellency Msgr Selim Sfeir Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."
Jesus sent out seventy of his disciples and entrusted them with the mission of preaching the coming of the Kingdom of heaven and healing the sick in his name. They returned to him joyful and told him how the forces of evil were crumbling before his name. "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."
Jesus did not rejoice because the forces of evil fell before his name, but because his disciples were able to enter the mysteries of the Kingdom. They did not penetrate God's plan by human wisdom, nor by philosophical understanding, but by faith and simplicity of heart in what the Master had told them. They did not enter through the door of science and human analysis of what God was doing in their lives, but they entered with the trust of children towards their parents. Is it not he who said, “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Mark 10:15.
Children trust their parents blindly, believing them without doubt or hesitation. The child does not question the truthfulness of what his father tells him, but trusts that his father possesses the knowledge and understanding and is able fulfill what he has promised, so he goes forth, knowing that there is someone to protect and care for him. This is what happened with the disciples sent by Jesus. Like innocent children, they believed his words, they believed what he was telling them, they had faith in him, and they set out on the mission he had entrusted to them, and everything he had said came true before them and through their hands.
Today's world scorns this kind of trust and makes a mockery of faith. Since the birth of the Church, the world has considered believers to be less intelligent and less perceptive than itself, because it wants a scientific explanation or tangible proof for everything that happens.
The apostle Paul says: "The Jews ask for miracles and the Greeks seek wisdom: we preach Christ crucified; a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.... For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men!" 1 Cor 1:22-23 and 25. But God does not care about the wisdom of this world and wants His children to walk in His way with the innocence of children and their deep trust in what He tells them so that they may be wise. He has hidden the mysteries of his Kingdom from the wise of this world and revealed them to those who accept his words with the simplicity of faith and put them into practice.
About these, Jesus says: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!" because they see God with the eyes of faith and not with the eyes of the world. They see God beyond the tangible, the sensible and the perceptible by the capacity of the human mind. You are the ones who, at every mass, experience the incarnation of God, his death, his resurrection and his ascension to heaven with the eyes of your faith. You who, with the confidence and hope of children, receive into your bodies the Risen One from the dead in the Eucharist, and experience the presence of God in your lives. You who live in the Eucharist "the New Covenant" in his blood and in his body broken for you, while the world can only see in it a piece of dry bread dipped in a little wine.
“Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them." Matthew 13:11. "So that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like torches in the world." Philippians 2:15
Let us thank God for the gift of faith by which we live, and hold firmly to the hope that God has planted in us through the Holy Spirit that we may live our faith like children and that the mysteries of the Kingdom may be revealed to us.
† Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus