Friday, October 01, 2010

Like this little child...

Last night I started reading the last chapter of Bl. Colomba Marmion's classic "Christ in His Mysteries." The chapter is on the saints. One of Marmion's points was that each of the saints (each person, actually) was created to participate in and mirror a special "angle" of Christ-the-Word. All together, we reflect Christ himself. Coming a day after the feast of another doctor of the Church, St Jerome,  today's feast highlights a saint who shared in a special way in Christ's being a "little child"--not just at Bethlehem (Therese "of the Child Jesus") but throughout his life. Hans Urs von Balthasar's final work was a Christmas meditation entitled, "Unless you become like this child," meaning Christ, who was always like a child in his trustful dependence upon the Father.  That's Therese, too, isn't it?
The first reading today almost presents the opposite image: God is chastising Job (in effect, calling him a "know it all") and laying proof upon proof before him of Job's littleness. Job is challenged, despite "the number of your years" to become like a little child.

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