Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16 / Matthew 11:25-27
In order to achieve success, power, wealth or a specific goal, a person needs to be ambitious.
With ambition and the willingness to put in effort, then goals and targets can be achieved.
But ambition without principles and discipline can be dangerous.
And ambition fanned by pride and ego can make a person think that nothing can stop him from getting what he wants.
In the first reading, the Lord used Assyria to punish His people for their sinfulness.
The Lord sent Assyria against His people who had become like a godless nation.
But ambition, pride and ego made Assyria go on destroying and cutting nations to pieces without limit.
Assyria was like an axe that claimed more credit than the man who wields it. Assyria was just over-ambitious.
So the Lord of host had to show Assyria who is the Master, and He sent a wasting sickness to Assyria’s stout warriors and burned up their wealth.
In the gospel, Jesus says that the true meaning of life is revealed to mere children.
As much as it is good to have an ambition in life, may we also be like simple and humble children.
May we listen to the Lord our God and do what He wants of us.