Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
For the second time this week, we hear Jesus say that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like little children. And it is incredibly crucial for us to understand why the Lord continues to double down on this point.
As briefly explored in the reflection this past Tuesday, a critical trait of children is that they still know how to be completely dependent. Curiously, the wisdom of the world tells us that we have to make something of ourselves. The world tells us that happiness and success come from being the biggest, the baddest, the richest, the most influential, the most popular, and so on. The reality is that everything comes from God. Even our moment-to-moment existence is completely dependent of God’s infinite love.
Christ instructs us to be like little children because they still know how to be completely dependent. To be clear, I am not advocating for a regression into juvenile lifestyles or that we all move back into our parents’ basements. Rather, what Christ invites us to is an interior disposition of total receptivity. We are called to rejoice in the gifts we are given and to use them to the fullest possible extent while simultaneously recognizing that we are the source of none of them. Placing this kind of radical trust in God can be a little scary at first, but ultimately is very freeing. The call to be like little children is a call to live our days in deep surrender, security, and peace in the knowledge that God knows our needs better than we do and will provide for us in every possible way….if only we let Him.