privileges of discipleship
The Peaceable Kingdom(c.1834), based on Isaiah 11:6-9 and painted by Edward Hicks an American Quaker painter on display at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Privileges of Discipleship? Pondering……………..

luke 10:21-24

At that very moment he rejoiced in the holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the child-like. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

PRIVILEGES OF DISCIPLESHIP

Upon reading today’s Gospel, I was struck by the subtitle given to verses 23-24 – The Privileges of Discipleship. While I am fully aware that faith is a total gift from God, I never thought of my discipleship as a privilege. But now I see clearly that it is!

With that in mind, it’s obvious that our faith and willingness to be a disciple of God is pure grace. It is gift, it is privilege, it is not and should not be a drudgery. It’s our response to God’s pursuit. Our YES, parallel to Mary’s YES!

WISE AND LEARNED

Jesus rejoices in the holy Spirit because of God’s gracious will! He refers to the wise and the learned and the child-like. “The wise and the learned” makes me think of those who overthink and are rigid to a fault. Why are things hidden from the “wise and the learned?” My guess would be because faith requires an open mind.

The mystery of God cannot be contained, it cannot be understood. Overthinking and rigidity, in a sense, blinds us. We lose out on seeing and hearing what God has chosen to reveal to us. He has chosen to reveal Himself to us but are we experiencing it?

THE CHILD-LIKE

For me, “child-like” equals complete trust. The way a child trusts that its parents will care for and protect it. It also makes me think of authenticity. What I think Jesus was getting at in this verse is what I was blessed to read this morning from World Community for Christian Contemplation:

(EEG studies of the brain of children (under two) show that they PERMANENTLY function in alpha mode – the state of altered consciousness in an adult – rather than the beta mode of ordinary mature consciousness.” Lynne Taggart ‘The Field’) By meditating we can therefore consciously return to a way of perception that was at first instinctive and unconscious. Read the whole reflection here.

TAKE IT AWAY

Hmmmm? Learned and wise vs. child-like. What does that mean for us? I know what it means for me and I completely agree! Meditation is key and it’s for EVERYONE!

The take away today: The more we trust, the more we see and experience God’s presence. The more we experience God, the deeper our faith becomes. Our faith shouldn’t be blind. It should be the result of what we see and hear through our experience of God. Those experiences come when we openly trust!

God bless you!

Sidebar: Today’s mass readings include Isaiah 11:1-10. I didn’t write a reflection on it, but I wanted to share the art (the image used for this post) that depicts verses 6-9. It’s one of my favorites.

Isaiah 11:6-9 reads: Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. the cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea. Imagine that?!