Today we are invited to pray over a particularly loud and strong word of Jesus, one at the very heart of his message and mission, the invitation to conversion. Conversion to what? To childlikeness. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart," says Jesus earlier in Matthew's Gospel. The question we are asked to reflect upon today is this: What does it mean to be childlike, to be "meek and humble of heart?" Why the radical warning of Jesus: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven?" And "whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

I offer these these hints, suggestions, or reminders to guide our reflection. First, I suggest that most, if not all, of the abuses and distortions of the Gospel by Christians and Churches comes from an inability or refusal to listen to or practice (or a watering down of) this central insight and precept of Jesus. Where there is humility and honesty, there is truth, the truth of the Gospel. Where this is lacking, we have something less and even contradictory (of the Gospel): superiority, arrogance, domination, hypocrisy. We wind up doing exactly what Jesus warns against: not receiving some of God's children and despising some of these little ones. We also wind up forgetting the infinite compassion of the Good Shepherd, who leaves the ninety-nine to seek out even one little one that has gone astray, and rejoices more over that one more than over those who never stray! And, worse for ourselves, we wind up not being God's children. So, the stakes are high!

Secondly, we all need to ask ourselves, individually, what child-like qualities do I have and which ones do I lack? Each of us needs to examine ourselves. Here are a few qualities Jesus must have had in mind: innocence, trust, wonder, dependency, spontaneity, hopefulness, openness, responsiveness. (We all can add to this list.)

Can we then, after this examen, as Ezekiel says, swallow these words of Jesus, discover they are sweet as honey in our mouth. They give substance to our true (spiritual) being, and not only bring us the joy of the Kingdom, but delight the heart of our God, whose will it is that not "one of these little ones be lost."

It might be very helpful, then, to conclude our prayer by reading the lovely words of today's psalm (119), the antiphon of which is "How sweet to my taste is your promise!"