what is greatness?
Human beings by nature desire greatness. It is something human and therefore basic. We need to desire for greatness if we are to make something out of our existence. We need to desire greatness if we are to live by our Christian principles. We need to desire for greatness if we have to live the call to holiness. We need to desire greatness because its opposite is not humility, nor contentment but mediocrity. And mediocrity is the devil’s own son. It might be good to note then at the start of this reflection that Jesus never said anything bad about the desire of his apostles to be great – not here in the gospel according to Matthew, nor in Luke’s and neither in Mark’s. It can even be surmised that Jesus even encouraged his disciples to desire for greatness by the interest that he showed in what his disciples were discussing along the way and by acceding to answer their query as in the gospel today. Thus Jesus did not condemn the desire for greatness. Instead Jesus redefined greatness, a redefined greatness we must all desire and aspire.
What is greatness?
Parents come here today with their children to have them blessed by St. Therese. What is this blessing all about? Is this a desire that our children become successful? Is this our innate desire to impose on our children the blessings of greatness and excellence? If so you have come to the right place and to the right person. But less you come out frustrated let me warn you at the start that St. Therese may give us the way to greatness but it can be a greatness contrary to our expectations. Hers is not the way of Promil that promises a gifted child and therefore an assured future. Hers is not the way of Clusivol that commands with the confidence of a regulation bawal magkasakit as if to deny us the basic experience of the weakness of our human vulnerability. Sometimes I can sense some irony on the fact that people come for healing to saints who never got healed of their maladies and to saints who even willingly asked for it. St. Therese never got healed of a simple tuberculosis which she happily but painfully used to climb up the ladder of her brand of greatness. And Padre Pio even asked for the pain of experiencing the gory bloodletting of the cross with that painful and enfeebling stigmata. Can we ask from someone something he or she had never asked for? Can we beg from her that which was never granted to her? So, when people come to me asking for a prayer for healing or for success I have to warn some of them that I could not even heal my arthritis and I have never won anything in life except for a free coke once in a while. Some of us are not too lucky in life and for most of us the greatness and success which we so desire, often end up where it was from the very start – in our imagination.
So what is the greatness that you ask then, and what is the greatness that Therese offers?
It is the greatness of the gospel, the greatness promised to the child-like.
Now this is funny. You have come here to have your children blessed only to be told that they are better left the way they are right now – as children. Actually, most often, the children are ok, and it us adults who are not. That is why the words used by our Lord in the gospel is unless you change, unless you turn and become like little children. It is us who are going in the wrong direction and unless we make a turnaround we are moving away from the kingdom of God instead of towards it. We are the ones who need the blessing of St. Therese and not the children.
I believe that each of us has a way of reaching the greatness promised by the gospel. St. Therese had her little way, St Francis had his, and Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas had theirs. But this greatness could only be had when we are child-like, when we recover the qualities we had when we were children. Two things.
First is the capacity to wonder. I came to know personally of a child who died of leukemia last year at the age of eleven. His name is Jose. He used to live in the convent. Kon istoryahon mo si Jose siguradoha nga may tiempo ka kag wala ka nagadali. Kay man bisan ano ang sabat ko, bisan ano pa ang pagexplicar ko, gina-follow-up ina pirme sang pamangkot, ”ngaa haw, ngaa haw?” Sang ulihi, sang tinak-an na ako sing sabat nga sabat sa iya pamangkot, ginsingganan ko sia ”Jose ang ngalan mo subong si Jose Ngaa Haw Pasquin.” Tinulok niya ako kag nagsiling, ”ngaa haw?” Kis-a lang sa kabuhi ko nga daw mapudag-pudag ako sa kaugot, kag isa yadto sa mga bes.
One of the qualities of the child is its continual and constant openness to life. A child has an endless curiosity for things and experiences probably coming from its ability to learn more. A child has the attitude of incessantly questioning everything even his own beliefs. This is the reason why Therese stumbled upon the Little Way. Her attitude of wonder, her endless curiosity, her incessant questions had made her open to God’s loving guidance.
Why am I sick? Why do we have to go through these natural calamities? Why do I have to suffer? What is it in here that makes me happy and secure? Why am I disturbed by his attitudes? What does God want from me?
Questions of this kind, questions of wonder do not only give us the chance to explain things. It can also lead us to appreciate the deeper realities of life and God’s ways in our life. And like a child we will be led to trust more deeply. Isn’t it that Jesus said that only to the childlike can things hidden be revealed which even the wise and the learned who are so sure of themselves miss? This is one of the characteristics of a child which can lead us to greatness.
Second: We need to be simple in our relationship with God most especially in our prayers. When we were young one of the first prayers taught to us by our parents is the prayer to our guardian angel. When I was still in the elementary I prayed it but when life became more complicated I abandoned it for the more sophisticated prayers. It was only in theology that I relearned to pray the first prayer taught to me by my grandmother – the angel of God. Now even as a priest I always pray it especially before I sleep.
There is nothing wrong with sophisticated prayers and I can understand very well your excitement in praying such. The life of St. Therese has taught us that spirituality should remain childlike even as we grow higher and older, for after all prayer is an attitude, an attitude of the heart, an attitude of trust. This is a prayer which bears the imprint of that attitude which we must carry on through life – the attitude of trust, of dependence, the attitude of being led and guided. And this can be especially sensed in the simple prayers we learned when we were children. This is the child-like qualities for greatness in the kingdom of God.
We who aspire for greatness have these two little lessons from St. Therese. Be constantly curious and be simple in your relationship with God.
What is greatness?
Parents come here today with their children to have them blessed by St. Therese. What is this blessing all about? Is this a desire that our children become successful? Is this our innate desire to impose on our children the blessings of greatness and excellence? If so you have come to the right place and to the right person. But less you come out frustrated let me warn you at the start that St. Therese may give us the way to greatness but it can be a greatness contrary to our expectations. Hers is not the way of Promil that promises a gifted child and therefore an assured future. Hers is not the way of Clusivol that commands with the confidence of a regulation bawal magkasakit as if to deny us the basic experience of the weakness of our human vulnerability. Sometimes I can sense some irony on the fact that people come for healing to saints who never got healed of their maladies and to saints who even willingly asked for it. St. Therese never got healed of a simple tuberculosis which she happily but painfully used to climb up the ladder of her brand of greatness. And Padre Pio even asked for the pain of experiencing the gory bloodletting of the cross with that painful and enfeebling stigmata. Can we ask from someone something he or she had never asked for? Can we beg from her that which was never granted to her? So, when people come to me asking for a prayer for healing or for success I have to warn some of them that I could not even heal my arthritis and I have never won anything in life except for a free coke once in a while. Some of us are not too lucky in life and for most of us the greatness and success which we so desire, often end up where it was from the very start – in our imagination.
So what is the greatness that you ask then, and what is the greatness that Therese offers?
It is the greatness of the gospel, the greatness promised to the child-like.
Now this is funny. You have come here to have your children blessed only to be told that they are better left the way they are right now – as children. Actually, most often, the children are ok, and it us adults who are not. That is why the words used by our Lord in the gospel is unless you change, unless you turn and become like little children. It is us who are going in the wrong direction and unless we make a turnaround we are moving away from the kingdom of God instead of towards it. We are the ones who need the blessing of St. Therese and not the children.
I believe that each of us has a way of reaching the greatness promised by the gospel. St. Therese had her little way, St Francis had his, and Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas had theirs. But this greatness could only be had when we are child-like, when we recover the qualities we had when we were children. Two things.
First is the capacity to wonder. I came to know personally of a child who died of leukemia last year at the age of eleven. His name is Jose. He used to live in the convent. Kon istoryahon mo si Jose siguradoha nga may tiempo ka kag wala ka nagadali. Kay man bisan ano ang sabat ko, bisan ano pa ang pagexplicar ko, gina-follow-up ina pirme sang pamangkot, ”ngaa haw, ngaa haw?” Sang ulihi, sang tinak-an na ako sing sabat nga sabat sa iya pamangkot, ginsingganan ko sia ”Jose ang ngalan mo subong si Jose Ngaa Haw Pasquin.” Tinulok niya ako kag nagsiling, ”ngaa haw?” Kis-a lang sa kabuhi ko nga daw mapudag-pudag ako sa kaugot, kag isa yadto sa mga bes.
One of the qualities of the child is its continual and constant openness to life. A child has an endless curiosity for things and experiences probably coming from its ability to learn more. A child has the attitude of incessantly questioning everything even his own beliefs. This is the reason why Therese stumbled upon the Little Way. Her attitude of wonder, her endless curiosity, her incessant questions had made her open to God’s loving guidance.
Why am I sick? Why do we have to go through these natural calamities? Why do I have to suffer? What is it in here that makes me happy and secure? Why am I disturbed by his attitudes? What does God want from me?
Questions of this kind, questions of wonder do not only give us the chance to explain things. It can also lead us to appreciate the deeper realities of life and God’s ways in our life. And like a child we will be led to trust more deeply. Isn’t it that Jesus said that only to the childlike can things hidden be revealed which even the wise and the learned who are so sure of themselves miss? This is one of the characteristics of a child which can lead us to greatness.
Second: We need to be simple in our relationship with God most especially in our prayers. When we were young one of the first prayers taught to us by our parents is the prayer to our guardian angel. When I was still in the elementary I prayed it but when life became more complicated I abandoned it for the more sophisticated prayers. It was only in theology that I relearned to pray the first prayer taught to me by my grandmother – the angel of God. Now even as a priest I always pray it especially before I sleep.
There is nothing wrong with sophisticated prayers and I can understand very well your excitement in praying such. The life of St. Therese has taught us that spirituality should remain childlike even as we grow higher and older, for after all prayer is an attitude, an attitude of the heart, an attitude of trust. This is a prayer which bears the imprint of that attitude which we must carry on through life – the attitude of trust, of dependence, the attitude of being led and guided. And this can be especially sensed in the simple prayers we learned when we were children. This is the child-like qualities for greatness in the kingdom of God.
We who aspire for greatness have these two little lessons from St. Therese. Be constantly curious and be simple in your relationship with God.
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