Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14
August 12, 2025 | Tuesday

Today’s Gospel

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you, that, unless you change, and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble, like this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child, in my name, receives me.

See that you do not despise any of these little ones; for I tell you, their angels in heaven continually see the face of my heavenly Father.

What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray. It is the same with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven doesn’t want even one of these little ones to perish.

Today’s Reflection

Moses and Joshua are the first of several pairs whose succession is smooth in the Scriptures. The people are ready to cross the Jordan River, and Moses addresses the people of Israel and gives his blessings to Joshua and the people. Joshua, not Moses, will lead them to the land of promise. The passage also preludes Moses’s death, but the stress is on Joshua’s leadership. Joshua will complete Moses’s work by settling in Canaan. The Deuteronomic Instructions of “Keeping the Law,”“steadfast and firm,” and “fidelity” to the Lord. Joshua also experienced a vision parallel to that of Moses, which was to give credence to his leadership and show that the Lord was also with him. It anticipates the same succession of the disciples of Jesus, though saddened by the Ascension, through the Spirit received during the Pentecost.

Matthew changes the heated debate on “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” in the Gospel of Mark into an inquiry, and by adding the “kingdom of heaven,” turns that into spiritual rather than worldly preeminence among them. This belongs to a series of discourses of Jesus teaching Christian values, devotion, loyalty, and fidelity. This section focuses on the value of humility or being “nobody.” The “little ones” or children are those who “put their trust in Jesus.” The example of the child is important in teaching the disciples. Children had no “social status or political significance.” It was symbolic that placing the child in their midst undercuts any ambitions among them and the desire to be the greatest among them. It seems that the passage has no interconnections. However, Matthew puts it that way to underlie after reflection on the text on the instruction of “life within the community” of disciples and the Christian communities.

It seems that the discourses, if read as a whole, point to the missionary activities of the Apostles and disciples: be humble, with child-like innocence, the need also for being hospitable to strangers, unrelenting in search for the lost sheep, wherein God is the Shepherd of the people of Israel.

/Vulnerasti, 2025