for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
Because, as Paul wrote, "in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom" (see First Corinthians 1:20). The wise and the learned would not on that basis, that is, on the basis of their talents or efforts come to know the truth of the Gospel. Such knowledge typically "puffs up" (see First Corinthians 8:1) leading to pride and even arrogance. This sort of wisdom, knowledge, and learning is contrasted with the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Those who are prideful in their own abilities are not open to the revelation that is free to the childlike. The wise and the learned are like old dogs that stubbornly refuse to learn a new trick. They are so self-assured that they cannot defer to experts, even when the expert in question is God himself. Only the childlike can truly learn anything at all. We who are wise and learned are too busy trying to figure out how something we are asked to learn is really something we knew already. The childlike instead express wonder before the truth, and a simplicity that, far from making them naïve, actually makes them hard to deceive. This wonder that makes the childlike open to revelation is very much akin to the fear of the Lord, which, we know, is the beginning of wisdom (see Proverbs 1:7).
When we allow ourselves to be childlike in the presence of Jesus we open ourselves to the revelation of the Father by the Son and the Son by the Father. We experience something of the relationship between he who embodied the virtues of childhood perfectly and the Father whose love for his Son never wavered. Our own call to be childlike is actually the gift of an invitation to taste the way in which Jesus himself was the perfect child of his Father. May we not be too proud or preoccupied to receive this call. The paradisical world Isaiah describes is a world in which creation itself has deeply tasted this reality.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
This is why creation itself is described as experiencing labor pains by Paul, who wrote, "we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now" (see Romans 8:22).
We are called to be among the children who are privileged to recognize how blessed are the eyes that see what they see. That vision is hidden from the wise and the learned. May we be more like the children that cried out "Hosanna to the Son of David" (see Matthew 21:9) and less like those rulers of this world, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Herods and the Pilates. In their deepest hearts they did unknowingly long for the Messiah. But their pride blinded them. We too remain blind until the Spirit opens our eyes. So let us invite him and welcome him into our hearts. In a sense, this is the signal for the nations that calls to us today.
The root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
The Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.
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