A Reflection for Friday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
Two little feet wearing neon pink light-up sneakers fly through the air. The tiny plastic lights burrowed in the shoes flash red and blue against the pale concrete outside my apartment building. A young girl with wild curly hair lassoed in frizzy pigtails stands before me. She blocks my path only for a moment before launching into another cartwheel, inviting dizziness by twirling and spinning down the avenue and out of her mother’s grasp.
“Those are very good cartwheels,” I tell her. Being a former gymnast, I know the product of a gymnastics coach teaching the hand-hand-foot-foot method of the perfect cartwheel. I remember the squish of cushioned floors under my wrists as I attempted flips and tricks at my home gymnasium. This girl, seemingly unconcerned with the dirty city streets, looks invincible as she rears up again for what may be her fifth cartwheel in a row.
Her mother responds in a sing-song voice with a famous leading question: “What do we say…” prompting her daughter to respond with a perfunctory thank you.
Instead, the pig-tailed girl looks at me to reply. She answers honestly.
“Yes, I know they are good! That’s because I learned.”
When we accept our worthiness and belovedness, the Kingdom of God is made manifest among us. Cue the cartwheels.
Today’s Alleluia acclamation points us to Mt. 11:25: “At that time Jesus said in reply, ‘I give praise to you, 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 childlike.’”
The “mysteries of the Kingdom” are revealed to us in the childlike confidence to answer: Yes, I know. I learned. How often do we dismiss a compliment because we feel like we are not worthy to receive it? We’re too embarrassed or embattled to recognize our goodness in the eyes of others. As children of God, there is no need to underestimate our potential or to knock ourselves down at others’ compliments. Children do no such thing. Instead, they are emboldened by their belovedness. They have unbridled confidence to answer to their inherent worthiness, to the childlike voice that cries out yes. The Kingdom of God grows in each one of us when we freely praise each other’s excellence and respond to our own with a joyful “yes.”
When we accept our worthiness and belovedness, the Kingdom of God is made manifest among us. Cue the cartwheels.
