At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come! If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.
"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
Mom and I have been having a little “blog dialogue” about how children see things much more differently than adults. Our conversation got me thinking about Matthew 18.
I read a blog by a college student once who said she didn’t believe in God. She used to, she said, “because my parents told me I did. But the older I got, the more I realized I didn’t KNOW God. How can I LOVE Him if I don’t KNOW Him?”
Of course, I personally think that this young lady was seduced by secular academia, which generally espouses atheism. But I also think that she might not have been seduced if her parents had “practiced what they preached” and lived their faith and showed her their own faith with more child-like obedience to God’s simple rules for us.
Obedience to the teaching of Christ through His church is not “blind” faith. It is an “obedient” faith. Regardless of what today’s society teaches us (that ‘anything goes’), our parents really did know best. “Self-made” men and women are very few and far between. Most of us are “made” by learning right from wrong, how to live and how to love from our parents. For the most part we respect their decisions and teaching because we know instinctively they would not knowingly lie to us or allow any harm to come to us.
We sometimes tend to over-analyze what our heavenly Father is really asking us to do. It is a problem mankind has had since the beginning. It’s why He sent His only Son to tell us, in PLAIN LANGUAGE, simple enough for CHILDREN to understand, to LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL ELSE, AND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS HE LOVES US.
All-powerful and ever-living God, You sent us your Son to teach us what we should know instinctively. Thank you for being patient with us.
Dear Jesus, thank you for teaching us the will of Our Father, that we love one another. We hope that by following your example we may have a share in your glory. Please have mercy on us who are slow to understand the lesson.
Loving Holy Spirit, please bestow on us the graces to recognize those times when we can put the lesson we have learned from Jesus into action, and the strength to overcome our hesitancy to do so.
Dear Mother Mary, please help us to become examples of faith and love as your Son taught us, and to share this loving gospel with others.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment