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August 9, 2022“Unless You Change and Become Like Little Children, You Will Not Enter the Kingdom of God.”
With these words in today’s gospel (Mt. 18:1-5, 10, 12-14) Jesus answers His disciples’ question of who is of greatest importance in the Kingdom of God. And perhaps more to our point, the qualities needed to gain entrance. What difference does it make who is the greatest if we never get into the Kingdom in the first place?!
I’ve heard several different interpretations of what qualities of children Jesus was referring to. Humility and innocence seem to me to lead the lists.
“Unfiltered” seems to me to be another, and perhaps a nuance of a child’s innocence.
From my perspective from afar (!!), my impression is that they take in the world around them with very few ‘filters’. Hence, frequent joy and wonder are part of their world; far more so than the experience of your typical adult. And they definitely seem unfiltered in their response to the world around them as found in their words and actions.
I asked a friend who teaches pre- and kindergarten-age children if my perceptions were correct. She assured me that they were. I asked if their responses to their classmates were in any way affected by skin color. She assured me they were not. She told me these were learned, not innate, responses.
It seems to me that as we grow and become more ‘educated’ and influenced by the suffering and pain that life entails, our experience of life becomes much more complicated.
“Yes, but…..” seems to me to be the undercurrent of so many of our responses to the world around us. Is this part of what Jesus is referring to when He refers to the “clever and the learned”??
Is nothing simple?
And yet I look at the ‘basics’ of Jesus’ message in word and lifestyle-
God loves us unconditionally.
Love God with all your heart and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Be compassionate; merciful; generous; forgiving; just; accepting of others.
Treat them as you would have them treat you.
Does the “yes, but….” in us cloud our perception of the simple and the obvious? Does it get in the way of our journey to the Kingdom?
My friend told me about her attempt one day to teach her class about the Trinity.
She asked a little boy at the end, “Do you understand this?”
His response? “No, but that’s okay!”
I “hear” Jesus off to the side saying, “BINGO!”
