“My friend, if you want to be great, become little. To be little it is necessary to believe as children believe, to love as children love, to give yourself up as children give themselves up... to pray as children pray.” (Saint Josemaria).
I have received many gifts from God in this lifetime. I have been given the gift of health and family and money and happiness. Though I – like every single living soul – struggle with things, for the most part I have been blessed with an easy life that is easy beyond measure.
And when a soul has received a life such as I have received – where things mostly turn out according to plan – it can be easy to forget that the good things happen, not because I will them to or because I deserve that outcome, but because it is the Holy Will of God. And because it can be easy to think like that, it is also easy to forget that everything in the world is the result of God Himself and God’s input in my life. And that means that if good things happen, it is good, and if bad things happen it is also good. It can be difficult to have the faith of children. For children rely on their parents for everything. And in relying on their parents for everything they are able to understand that every single part of their life is the result of their parents’ input in it.
And Christ loved children for this simple face… “Children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people; but Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ And he laid his hands on them and went away.” (Matthew 19:13-15).
That child-like faith – that faith of children – is the crux of our faith. After all, Christ, who is God Himself, told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is made for such as these.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux became a Saint by remaining a spiritual child. “We no longer have to take the trouble of climbing stairs because an elevator has replaced these. I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched, then, in the Scriptures and I read these words: ‘Let the children come to me.’ I felt I had found what I was looking for... The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more.”
And Saint Therese is not the only Saint to have adopted spiritual childhood. Saint Josemaría taught, “My friend, if you want to be great, become little. To be little it is necessary to believe as children believe, to love as children love, to give yourself up as children give themselves up... to pray as children pray.”
And I have been thinking about that today – children – and all the littleness of them…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.