(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
Five times in these three verses Jesus calls God his Father. He contrasts the Father with the childlike, the unlettered, those needing knowledge.
My father once tried to teach me the bowline knot. He had worked on the ore ships of the Great Lakes before he met mom. My brother and I were not interested and we lost an opportunity to received instruction and wisdom from one who knew more than we did. My brother and I were not very childlike then.
Often I think of myself as still not being childlike. I seem to forget that that God the Father has the fullness of knowledge and wisdom and that I have less than a very young child. I need to stop and think before I put my foot in my mouth. My foolishness is not God’s wisdom, whereas God’s foolishness is wisdom for me.
All parents have important things to teach their children about themselves and their worlds. All children need to learn from their parents. This means that all of us need to learn from the Father because the only Son wishes to reveal to us the Father. It is not about knots and ore ships, but about the mercy and love of the Father who sent the Son to reveal to us the wonders of the Father.
I later learned how to tie the bowline and many other knots. Maybe this is a sign that I shall eventually learn all that the Father and the Son wishes to reveal to us, to you and to me. It does not matter how old each of us is, but it does matter how much we learn of the wisdom of the Father and Son.