Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25: Difference between revisions
Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25 (view source)
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Clearly Jesus did not mean that the "wise and the learned" cannot know the Father. Instead, he said that the Father had "hidden these things" from them, while leaving it to the Son to reveal him to them: | Clearly Jesus did not mean that the "wise and the learned" cannot know the Father. Instead, he said that the Father had "hidden these things" from them, while leaving it to the Son to reveal him to them: | ||
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious<ref>Note the perfect definition here of the word "gracious" when attached to the Father's "will" -- the source of all Grace!</ref> will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/11?26 Mt 11:26-27])<ref name=":1">Being thoughtful or not, we might stumble over a couple clues here as to whom Jesus "wishes to reveal " the Father -- clearly that revelation "processes" from the Father and through the Son (back to St. Thomas: see [[Holy Trinity]]):</ref> | Yes, Father, such has been your gracious<ref>Note the perfect definition here of the word "gracious" when attached to the Father's "will" -- the source of all Grace!</ref> will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/11?26 Mt 11:26-27])<ref name=":1">Being thoughtful or not, we might stumble over a couple clues here as to whom Jesus "wishes to reveal " the Father -- clearly that revelation "processes" from the Father and through the Son (back to St. Thomas: see [[Holy Trinity]]):</ref> | ||
We're left wondering not only what "childlike" means, but also why would God hide "these things" from certain people? | |||
== A wise and learned, and very confused man == | == A wise and learned, and very confused man == | ||
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Sadly, we usually know better. So we get around the "cognitive dissonance" of doing wrong while knowing right through rationalization. Either rationalized or through ignorance, we engage the worst form of confirmation bias when it completely binds us to an entrenched point of view that shields a truth. Note that I am using the word "bind" where "blind" would fit. If you think about it, "blind" can mean not being fooled by one's own eyes -- or flawed perceptions, which is why blind people develop and exercise perceptions that go unseen by others.<ref>All kinds of interesting places to wander with the miracles of healing the blind. As opposed to the ancient world's view that the blind are wise because they are not blinded by what they see -- such as the blind Greek poet Homer. Jesus inverts the paradigm and gives sight (faith) to the blind (unbelieving). One of my favorite scenes in the Bible is that of Paul being filled by the Holy Spirit, and "Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized" ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/9?18 Acts 9:18]).</ref> With or without sight, we see what we want to see, and all the learning and wisdom in the world becomes but a servant to our biases. | Sadly, we usually know better. So we get around the "cognitive dissonance" of doing wrong while knowing right through rationalization. Either rationalized or through ignorance, we engage the worst form of confirmation bias when it completely binds us to an entrenched point of view that shields a truth. Note that I am using the word "bind" where "blind" would fit. If you think about it, "blind" can mean not being fooled by one's own eyes -- or flawed perceptions, which is why blind people develop and exercise perceptions that go unseen by others.<ref>All kinds of interesting places to wander with the miracles of healing the blind. As opposed to the ancient world's view that the blind are wise because they are not blinded by what they see -- such as the blind Greek poet Homer. Jesus inverts the paradigm and gives sight (faith) to the blind (unbelieving). One of my favorite scenes in the Bible is that of Paul being filled by the Holy Spirit, and "Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized" ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/9?18 Acts 9:18]).</ref> With or without sight, we see what we want to see, and all the learning and wisdom in the world becomes but a servant to our biases. | ||
Here we see how God doesn't have to hide anything from us. Like Adam and Eve scurrying about, feeling naked "among the trees of the garden" ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3?8 Gen 3:8]), we ourselves bury God under our guilt, pride and sins. On the upside, here we can see that God chooses us when we make ourselves available to him. | |||
== Believing in God like the child Saint == | == Believing in God like the child Saint == | ||
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"No state!" | "No state!" | ||
"No, sir, there is no state, and no use for a minister. France is shrunk to a couple of acres of ground; a sheriff's constable could take care of it; its affairs are not matters of state. The term is too large."<ref>From the first edition, 1895, p. 892; [https://archive.org/details/personalrecollec00twai/page/892/mode/2up Personal recollections of Joan of Arc : Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 : Internet Archive] Note: the page numbers are from the serial publication in Harper's magazine, so do not correspond to later book editions.</ref> </blockquote>Another comes earlier, during the initial investigation ordered by the Dauphin (Joan refused to call him King of France until he had been crowned at Rheims, which completed her mission). A "sly Dominican," Twain writes, tested the logic that she needed an army to do God's will: <blockquote>Then answer me this. If He has willed to deliver France, and is able to do whatsoever He wills, where is the need for men-at-arms?" .... But Joan was not disturbed. There was no note of disquiet in her voice when she answered: "He helps who help themselves. The sons of France will fight the battles, but He will give the victory!"<ref>p. 458, [https://archive.org/details/personalrecollec00twai/page/458/mode/2up?view=theater Personal recollections of Joan of Arc : Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 : Internet Archive] </ref> </blockquote>The Bishop, in Twain's account, muttered in response, <blockquote>"By God, the child has said true. He willed that Goliath should be slain, and He sent a child like this to do it!" </blockquote>The Bishop was amazed not at her childlike argument, but that the argument came from a child. And, as with David, a child would save the nation (!). | "No, sir, there is no state, and no use for a minister. France is shrunk to a couple of acres of ground; a sheriff's constable could take care of it; its affairs are not matters of state. The term is too large."<ref>From the first edition, 1895, p. 892; [https://archive.org/details/personalrecollec00twai/page/892/mode/2up Personal recollections of Joan of Arc : Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 : Internet Archive] Note: the page numbers are from the serial publication in Harper's magazine, so do not correspond to later book editions.</ref> </blockquote>Another comes earlier, during the initial investigation ordered by the Dauphin (Joan refused to call him King of France until he had been crowned at Rheims, which completed her mission). A "sly Dominican," Twain writes, tested the logic that she needed an army to do God's will: <blockquote>Then answer me this. If He has willed to deliver France, and is able to do whatsoever He wills, where is the need for men-at-arms?" .... But Joan was not disturbed. There was no note of disquiet in her voice when she answered: "He helps who help themselves. The sons of France will fight the battles, but He will give the victory!"<ref>p. 458, [https://archive.org/details/personalrecollec00twai/page/458/mode/2up?view=theater Personal recollections of Joan of Arc : Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 : Internet Archive] </ref> </blockquote>The Bishop, in Twain's account, muttered in response, <blockquote>"By God, the child has said true. He willed that Goliath should be slain, and He sent a child like this to do it!" </blockquote>The Bishop was amazed not at her childlike argument, but that the argument came from a child.<ref>And, as with David, a child would save the nation (!). | ||
If you are curious as to why God would side with the French in that war (btw, the "English" were French -- Normans who invaded Britain a few hundred years before), my best calculus is that God knew the Reformation would come and needed France as a Catholic bastion. Had the English won, Henry VIII may well have expelled Catholicism from France as well as England as happened merely one hundred years later.</ref> | |||
One of my favorite characters in the story of ''La Pucelle'' is the general ''La Hire''<ref>Or, if you prefer, Étienne de Vignolles, Sieur de Montmorillon, Chatelain de Longueville</ref>, which meant "the wrath of God," and not in a good way. He was crude, fearless, a military genius -- and godless. He was appalled when Joan ordered him to expel from the camps the prostitutes, and, worse, mandate Mass twice a day for the soldiers. Worst of all was when she required of him a prayer.<ref>He gave in, and prayed, "Fair Sir God, I pray you to do by La Hire as he would do by you if you were La Hire and he were God." Twain defends this account as the true origin of the prayer, which has been attributed since to others. (Twain, p. 547, Harpers)</ref> He was disposed to blasphemy. He was an accomplished commander, but himself wound up in the failed French politics of the Hundred Years War. And, beyond reason, he saw something in little Joan, which allowed her to put him to use, and magnificently. La Hire is the perfect example for us of reaching past the limits of reason and simply trusting what God has put before us, and letting God take over from there. | |||
Saint Joan of Arc boggles the mind, pushes us past reason, that is. But unlike the stories of some other Saints, and beyond the historical evidence, we can actually see her doing all that she did. On the surface, Saint Joan makes it easy for us to combine reason and faith. But as real and clear as the "what" of the story is, rationally the "how" is simply implausible. Reason must yield. | |||
So let us just be amazed while learning what we can from the Maid of Orleans''.'' | |||
== What childlike is and is not == | == What childlike is and is not == | ||