Daily Gospel Reflection for October 5, 2019

Today's Gospel: Luke 10:17-24 Jesus just gave these disciples an amazing gift, and they come back from "investing" in that gift with exuberance and joy. Look at what happened! Demons submitted to their authority over them! It’s hard even today to imagine what that must have been like. Jesus affirms this gift to them afterwards, and reminds them to take heed not to find their joy in temporal matters, as we might say, but in eternal matters. Even the greatest things we do with the gifts that God has given us are not to compare with keeping our eyes on eternal life, from whence our true joy comes. Jesus also reminds them how blessed they indeed are! How many others have wanted to see and hear about the coming and establishment of God’s kingdom, and here they are -- right in the midst of it all. And in the middle of Jesus’ discussion, He describes them as "childlike". Wait. Whoa. What, Jesus? Is -- is this an insult? If your supervisor came up to you and said, "Congrats on that project! You are just like a little kid, keep it up!" it might come off a little sour. So what does Our Lord mean here? I think we can all come up with an appropriate interpretation of what Jesus meant here, but I point it out to contrast it with the good work He just praised. We're told elsewhere that becoming like a little child is the goal. Babies doing such enormous work - casting out demons, healing the sick…if the childlike can do this, why would we want to be anything else?