I don't think it is a big secret that I love it
when we have children here in the Church. I think deep down, people
in general love having children around. Yes, there can be those
times when it is not so enjoyable. No one likes to see a child
upset; sometimes a baby's cry can be a bit distracting. Sometimes
I'm asked, “Father, do you get distracted when a child is crying or
making noise?” The answer is, “Yes, I do get distracted. But I
can also get distracted by a fly buzzing in my ear or hearing an
emergency vehicle going down the highway”. Distractions happen
sometimes. Despite those annoyances or discomforts we may have
experienced at times, I believe they are offset greatly by the more
positive experiences we have with children in our midst. I'm talking
about the joy we have in hearing a child's laughter or seeing a
child's smile as they wave hello. There is nothing like listening to
a child sing his or her favorite song, whether it from the radio or
from church, even if it is slightly off-key. There are many
different things that children say and do that in turn make us smile
and laugh.
All children have a wonderful innocence about
them that makes all this possible. We adults live in a world of
cynicism and doubt in which everything is questioned and criticized.
It brings us back to joy when we can see that childhood innocence at
work once more. One of my favorite TV shows has been NCIS. One of
the main characters in the show is named Leroy Jethro Gibbs. This
character is known for being rough, but in several episodes, the
other characters are amazed to see how well he gets along with
children. One character pointed this out and Gibbs replies, “You
know why I get along with children so well? It's because when they
lie they don't have the guile to get away with it.” In his own
gruff manner, Gibbs is talking about a child's innocence. An adult
can learn to maintain a lie and to keep the truth a secret. But that
takes time. A child is too innocent to keep it up.
There was a writer in the early 20th Century
named G. K. Chesterton. He was a great Catholic theologian and
philosopher. In one of his books, titled “Orthodoxy”, he talks
about how we humans have lost our ability to be amazed at the world
around us. We simply take everything for granted. A small child, on
the other hand, is easily amazed at the most simple and mundane
things. He gives the example of the opening of a door. Such an
action holds very little consequence to us, but to a small child the
opening of a door is the most amazing thing in the world at that
moment. As we get older, we loose that sense of wonder.
Chesterton's point is that we need to return to that sense of wonder
and innocence. Even within our faith, we need that innocence and
that wonder of what Christ is doing for all of us.
Christ also talks about the innocence of
childhood. He responds to an argument that the Twelve have on their
way to Capernaum about who is the greatest. The answer from Christ
is simple yet amazing: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be
the last of all and the servant of all.” To help drive His point
home, Jesus uses the example of a child. “Whoever receives one
child such as this in my name, receives me”. When was the last
time any one of us was told to act more like a child? Yet this is
precisely what Christ is telling us here. We need to be innocent,
free of guile, open to the wonders and amazement of the world around
us. It is then that we can become more like Christ and be the
servant of all.
So obviously the goal is to return to that
innocence that we all started out with and to grow in our
relationship with God. But what happens if we don't do that? What
happens if we choose to ignore these words and simply focus on who is
the greatest and who is the most powerful or influential and simply
doing what we want to do? The readings today talk about that as
well.
We continue hearing this week from the letter of
St. James. Today the Apostle talks about the difference between
those who seek innocence and purity and those who seek their own
selfish wants and desires. When we seek that childhood innocence
that I have been talking about and seek the “wisdom from above”
we find what is pure, peaceable, gentle, and compliant according to
James. We find peace, righteousness and sincerity. The more we
strive for these good things, the more good things will be produced.
However, if we instead seek only what we want and not what is from
above, we find something different. “Where jealousy and selfish
ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice”. Sin
and disorder begets more sin and disorder. He goes on to talk about
how it is our passions, specifically our disordered passions, that
lead to killing and war and conflicts.
This leads us to the conflict that we hear about
in the First Reading. The Book of Wisdom talks about how the “wicked
one” plots to do many cruel things to the one who claims to come
from God (even to putting him to a shameful death). He even suggests
putting the just one to the test to see if God will rescue him from
their clutches.
One does not have to be a Biblical scholar to see
that this passage foreshadows what will happen in Christ's Passion.
Our Gospel reading for today includes a prediction from Christ about
His upcoming Passion. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him”.
Why this cruelty? Why this strong desire to
silence those who come with the blessings of God? It is because
those evil men do not have the innocence and purity that Jesus is
talking about. They are ruled by jealousy and selfish ambition.
They are more interested in what they want, than in what God may want
for them.
Let us not seek our own selfish gains, brothers
and sisters. But let us strive for what is good, pure and holy. Let
us seek for that childhood innocence once more, so that we can
receive Christ in our lives.
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