Jesus’ way of acting and speaking is always a little puzzling. In this case, he breaks with the commonly held view of children as socially insignificant beings. The apostles don’t want them around him in their “adult” world, where children are only a nuisance. Even the chief priests and the scribes, seeing the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” become angry. And they ask Jesus to scold them (see Mt 21:15-16). Instead, Jesus has a completely different attitude towards children: he calls them to himself and embraces them; he lays his hands on them and blesses them, and he even holds them up as models for his disciples. “For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Lk 18:16).
In another passage of the Gospel, Jesus says that “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).
Why does the kingdom of God belong to those who are like children? Because children confidently abandon themselves to the care of their father and mother; they believe in their love. When they are in their arms, they feel safe and unafraid. And when they sense danger, they hold on even more tightly to their mom or dad, and immediately feel protected. At times, we see a parent put a child in a high place, for example, and then tell him or her to jump. And the child jumps with complete trust.
Jesus wants the disciples of the kingdom of heaven to be like that. Authentic Christians, like children, believe in the love of God. They throw themselves into the arms of their heavenly Father, and trust him unconditionally. Nothing frightens them anymore because they never feel alone. Even when a time of trial comes along, they believe in God’s love, for they believe that everything that happens is for their good. Are they worried about something? They put it in the Father’s hands and, with child-like trust, believe that he will resolve everything. They abandon themselves completely, as a child does, without calculating the risks.
Children are totally dependent on their parents for their food, clothing, a home, care, education, and so on. So, too, do we “children of the Gospel” depend completely on the Father. He feeds us just as he feeds the birds of the air. He clothes us as he adorns the wildflowers. He knows what we need even before we ask him for it (see Mt 6:26), and he gives it to us. The kingdom of God, too, is not something that we ourselves achieve; we receive it as a gift from the hands of the Father.
Furthermore, children do no evil, for they don’t even know what it is. …
The “children of the Gospel” believe in God’s mercy, and, forgetting the past, they begin a new life each day in openness to the promptings of the Spirit, which are always creative.
Children do not learn to speak on their own; they need to be taught. The disciples of Jesus do not follow their own reasoning; they learn everything from the word of God to the point of speaking and living according to the Gospel.
Children are inclined to imitate their father. If you ask them: “What do you want to do when you grow up?” they often say that they want to follow their mother’s or father’s profession. The same applies to the “children of the Gospel.” They imitate their heavenly Father who is Love, and they love as he does. They love everyone because the Father makes the sun rise and the rain fall on the just and unjust alike (see Mt 5:45). They are the first to love because He loved us while we were still sinners (see Rm 5:8). They love freely, without selfish interests, because this is what the heavenly Father does…
This is why Jesus likes to be surrounded by children and puts them before us as models. …
Chiara Lubich
Word of Life, October 2003
