Unlearning our ABCs

Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time &
Saint John Eudes, Priest

Readings for Saturday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
Biographical Information about Saint John Eudes

Reflection:

Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires, and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.

Saint John Eudes

Some aspects of what the Lord desires of His faithful followers seem to be threaded throughout the history of the Church. The quote from St. John Eudes above is one of those threads. Here we see in concise terms the object of our prayers, the subject of our deepest hopes, the answer to those cries in the night when we ask; “Lord God, what do you want of me?” One day it would be interesting to find out just how many times since the patristic fathers this sentiment has been echoed.

A piece of it is given to us today in the Psalm Response; “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” A clean heart, however is only the beginning of forming ourselves in Christ. It is the blank piece of paper upon which are written the efforts we make in His name.

In the Gospel today, that very short statement by Jesus, we get another piece of the direction we must take. He says; “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” What do we suppose this means? What are the characteristics of a child’s faith? Remember he says; “such as these”. A child is innocent. That means un-culpable, even if they inadvertently fall into sin, because of their innocence, they cannot be held responsible.

I am reminded of a time when my parents, then in their late 40’s went to New York and visited the United Nations. At the time I smoked cigarettes and my mother thought it would be nice if she bought me some unusual cigarette holders from the gift shops there (this was a time when the health risks were pretty much unknown and smoking was not the social breach it has become.) What she unknowingly brought me was a nice collection of “Hash Pipes”. Was she encouraging me to participate in the “drug culture” that was pretty rampant at the time (early 70’s)? No she had innocently done a sweet thing for her son. Would that all our actions were as innocent as that and of the children about whom our Savior speaks.

Another characteristic of children, especially as it pertains to faith is simple acceptance. Children learn to take things on faith. Their loving parents have allowed them to be safe from the dangers of the world and as a consequence, when they are told that, “There is a God and He is good.”, they believe it without questioning. They don’t ask; “Why can’t I see Him?” or “How is that possible?” Those questions come later when the blush of innocence fades and the cynicism of adolescence begins to emerge. That does not mean that the child-like faith goes away. It still hides there behind that face of, “I’m and adult now and you have to prove it to me.” It is a state, that child-like innocence, that we struggle to re-attain as we grow older.

Finally, a child is trusting. Like Jesus, the child’s first instinct is to trust rather than distrust or fear. Distrust and fear are things children learn as they grow older. We, as parents teach them and not just by example either. We know we must teach our children to never trust a stranger. For their own protection they must learn that they must assume a person they do not know intends to harm them. We tell them; don’t accept gifts, don’t take food; don’t go with anyone you do not know because it may be the last thing you ever do. They learn not to trust. They learn to fear. It is a great tragedy that, in our society, if we as parents don’t do this, we have actually been irresponsible and have placed our children at risk, even though it is only a tiny fraction of the population that would actually do them harm.

How do we as adults regain that trust and innocence? That is the difficult part. Somehow we must find a way to put on the mind of Christ who, with almost child-like innocence, loved and embraced even those who ultimately put him to death. Perhaps, given today’s reminder, we need to un-learn rather than learn in order to follow the words of St. John, whom we remember and revere today.

Pax