Becoming a humble child of God
To whom does entry into the kingdom of heaven belong?
By Tim Trainor
First, the desire to become like Him: though created in His image, we are restored to His likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace. Second, develop the disposition of a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children": for it is to "little children" that the Father is revealed.
Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 31:1-8
Matthew18:1-5, 10, 12-14
“Don’t be a baby!”
“You’re a big boy now!”
“Grow up!”
None of the above words were ever spoken by our Savior in any of the Gospels. Instead, both the Bible and the Catholic Catechism tell us that becoming like a little child is a necessary prerequisite for entry into the kingdom of heaven.
Plus, the Bible tells us, I contend in several places, that Jesus identified little children with Himself. This should give us pause, careful, prayerful, pensive pause to grasp. So, let us wait and explore the topic: “To whom does entry into the kingdom of heaven belong?”
“Whom does Our Lord say 'is fit' and thus invited to enter and possess the Kingdom of Heaven?” And, how does He measure this 'qualification'?
A large portion of the answer to these questions is in our Gospel reading this morning:
Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in My name receives Me.
In this Reading, we also find an interesting addition in His invitation, which He expands upon in Mark 9:37: Whoever receives one child such as this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives not Me but the One who sent Me.
Added to our Gospel, we find in CCC 1265-71 that: In a strict sense, any baptized Christian is an Adopted Child of God and thus a member of his Church. As through baptism we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). The baptized are members of “a chosen race . . . God’s own people” (1 Pet.2:9 & Rom. 12:4-5). And thus each believer has a guardian angel (per CCC 336 and Mt. 18:10).
Some more relevant criteria are cited in CCC 526: To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become 'children of God' we must be 'born from above' or 'born of God'. Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this 'marvelous exchange' …
There is not only an 'invite' to a party but a promise of 'much holy company' like angels and Christ Himself who will travel with us to 'His, so to speak, after-life Christmas Party'.
The Catechism also comments extensively on this 'Adopted Child' reality in its section on the Our Father Prayer. In CCC 2782 we find: We can adore the Father because He has caused us to be reborn to His life by adopting us as His children in His only Son: by Baptism, He incorporates us into the Body of His Christ; through the anointing of His Spirit who flows from the head to the members, He makes us other "Christs."
However, we need to keep one thing in mind: That this incorporation into God's family does come with some responsibilities, as para 2784-5 explains: Our adoption requires that we strive to follow God's will in our lives as: The free gift of adoption requires, on our part, continual conversion and a new life. Praying to our Father should develop in us two new and fundamental dispositions:
First, the desire to become like Him: though created in His image, we are restored to His likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace. Second, develop the disposition of a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children": for it is to "little children" that the Father is revealed.
So I suspect that there is something of great value here to study about the characteristic of being a little child, or childlikeness that Christ values.
Our Gospel Reading for this morning begins with our Lord rebuking the ambitious aspirations of the Apostles. It shows the means of attaining true greatness hereafter, through the example of humility. He does this by showing how dear to Him is this unpretentious trust, dependence, and openness that a typical child has towards his parents. He then adds that we should not give scandal to any of these, our child-like brethren, as their angels will be witnesses against us. And, lastly, by touching on the parable of 'The Lost Sheep', Matthew shows us the length that God is willing to go to save just one of His lost children [read: who have become what we now call 'a sinner'].
Let's now look at the Reference Note tied to the phrase 'Become like children' in verse Mt.18:3 of the Catholic Study Bible, which reads:
The child here is being held up as as a model for the disciples not because of any supposed innocence of children, but, because of their complete dependence on, and [more importantly] trust in their parents. So must the disciples be, in respect to God!
Saint Thomas Aquinas has a lot to say about this topic. First of all, Aquinas tells us that children are not pretentious; they do not put on airs; they are themselves. Secondly, they are pure, not dominated by unchaste desires, and so they are true friends to one another. They are not manipulators. Thirdly, they do not hold grudges. They forget wrongs quickly. They are happy to ignore the morning’s scuffles to play again in the afternoon. All of this amounts to the virtue, Aquinas reminds us, called humility — a key virtue which Aquinas notes that the Savior impressed on His followers continually in His teachings while He was with them.
The account we read today is found in three of the four Gospels, so, from this fact, we can infer that it must be of some great importance.
Later in His life, Jesus turns from words to example and demonstrates His childlike humility in His passion and death, and maybe even more amazingly in His quick pardoning and kind blessing of those who had just days before abandoned and denied Him. Did you hear the forgetfulness here: What a great example. It also makes me think of the grace given to each of us in the Sacrament of Confession.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whom Pope Pius XI called the “greatest saint of modern times” and whom St. John Paul II declared a Doctor of the Church, taught 'The Little Way' of spiritual childhood. This is not just some kind of devotional attitude; it's about becoming like the Triune God, in whose image we are made and who dwells in us by grace she said.
Frequently, Thérèse would recall the image of a little child and how we should be like that child, trusting in our loving Father, always striving for Heaven, even when we make mistakes. She wrote: You may think of a little child that is learning to stand but does not yet know how to walk. In his desire to reach the top of the stairs to find his mother, he lifts his little foot to climb the first step. It is all in vain, and at each renewed effort, he falls.
Well, be like that little child. [And here is the important part] Always, always keep lifting your foot to climb the ladder of holiness. Do not imagine that you can mount even the first step. All God asks of you is goodwill. From the top of the ladder, He looks lovingly upon you, and soon, touched by your fruitless efforts, He will Himself come down, and, taking you in His Arms, will carry you up the ladder to His Kingdom, where you will never leave Him. But - should you ever cease to raise your foot, you will be left behind on the earth.
So, how can you become a saint? Just be yourself, without putting on airs; be pure and trusting; forgive offenses. Then you will be humble, like a little child, and thus fit for lifting by God to His Heavenly Kingdom!
I ask you: “How hard is that?” It's just Kids’ stuff!