Wednesday of Week 15 in Ordinary Time
Is 10:5-7,13–16
Mt 11:25-27
“… for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.”
I have always been interested in learning about what it means to be ‘childlike’, since it can easily be confused with the term ‘childish’. Childlike-ness could refer to an attitude of humility and absolute trust in our loving Father. However, a recent experience made me reflect that it could also include the attribute of being open to our Lord’s presence, in the same way that a child is always receptive to everything going on.
I had been on a holiday to Osaka which extended over the weekend, which made me decide to seek out an English-language mass. Happily, I managed to find a Catholic church relatively near my hotel and even arrived early despite my inability to decipher maps. But as I entered the church, I began to feel slightly unsettled, though I couldn’t put my finger on the exact reason. Perhaps it was just the fatigue from travelling in early summer weather that was more scorching than I’d expected. Perhaps it was because the church, though welcomingly familiar in many aspects, was quite different in others; it had a modern design with elongated sculptures of Jesus and the Last Supper, which looked different from the ones I was used to. It had a large window, which enabled me to be distracted by the nearby subway line and it didn’t have benches for kneeling. The priest, who was surprisingly young, seemed a bit unsure about “do I say this or do you?” for some parts of the mass (I later learned that he was a visiting priest) and though he kept his homily brief and humorous, I found his South American accent hard to fully understand.
This wasn’t the first time I’d attended mass overseas, but as mass went on (with familiar hymns set to unfamiliar tunes as a fitting metaphor) I felt slightly distant and even disappointed that it wasn’t turning out to be as ‘fruitful’ an experience as I’d hoped, whatever ‘fruitful’ meant. Then, something changed at the Eucharistic celebration.
After the priest held up the host, I happened to notice that he bowed slightly in a gesture of humility and reverence, and I was somehow reminded of a child offering a present to his parent. It was strangely moving, especially when he did it for the chalice as well, and suddenly I felt touched nearly to tears by Jesus’ presence. It felt as if He was reaching out to me personally, reassuring me that He was still here amid these unfamiliar surroundings; that He completely understood my discomfort and that He would continue to watch over us for the rest of our trip (despite my unacknowledged guilt at having neglected my usual prayer routine while on holiday).
I’d never experienced such emotion — maybe because I’d been just going through the motions at mass back home, and I certainly had not been expecting any profound spiritual homecoming at this mass. But it was an extremely encouraging reminder of how our God can be present in the most unexpected of circumstances (like the light breeze which Elijah noticed), as long as we keep ourselves open without any preconceived notions. It is an attitude which I find increasingly hard to maintain as I grow older and seemingly accumulate more experience and knowledge; but maybe, this is precisely where I need to be self-aware and acknowledge my need to turn to our Father’s loving help and power of the Holy Spirit – just like a child depends on her parent.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Jaclyn Lam)
Prayer: Holy Spirit, through your guidance show us how we may be child-like. Help us to stay open to the Lord’s presence.
Thanksgiving: Thank you Jesus, for the Catholic Mass and for always being with us in the Mass.
OXYGEN 
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