Little Ones and Empty Altars

Envy, pride, and forgetfulness run through these readings like a hidden rot. Rachel burns with rivalry; the disciples ask who is greatest; Damascus and Ephraim trust what their own hands and strength can secure. But the Lord brings low the lofty, and He hears the honest cry of the humble. The child set in the midst is the true answer to them all. Whoever would enter the kingdom must put away the swollen heart that grasps, compares, and exalts itself.

Isaiah warns that strong cities become heaps when men forget their Maker and look to their own works. Clement speaks rightly against such false worship: "Who shall refuse to look on any temples And altars, worthless seats of dumb stones, And idols of stone, and images made by hands, Stained with the life's-blood, and with sacrifices Of quadrupeds, and bipeds, and fowls, and butcheries of wild beasts." We may not bow before carved images, yet a man still makes idols when he serves advantage, reputation, or revenge.

In the psalm, the righteous man asks not for applause but for deliverance, praying, as Origen cites, "deliver my soul from the sword, and my beloved one from the hand of the dog;" This is fitting for Matthew 18, where Christ commands severe mercy: cut off what causes sin, seek the stray, receive the little one, forgive not seven times but seventy-seven. The servant spared a great debt but choking his fellow servant shows that an unforgiving man has not understood judgment or mercy. Therefore let each of us cast down his private idol, be reconciled quickly, and guard the weak, lest after receiving pardon we be found cruel.