Meditation for October 2, As Little Children

I ought to love little children as Our Lord did - not for the freshness of their pretty faces or the wealth of their parents, but on account of their innocence; the Holy Spirit, never having been grieved by their sin, dwells intimately in the souls of these little ones for, since they have not yet reached the age of reason, they cannot commit sin any more than they can gain merit.

I ought to love them further because they represent the future; they are what is not, but what will be, and they may perhaps play a particular role in my later life.

I ought to imitate them: The Kingdom of heaven, said Our Lord, is for such (Matt. xix, 14). One day the Good Master placed a child in the midst of the Apostles, saying: Unless you be converted and become as little children you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. xviii, 3).

Could it be that Our Lord forgot that children have their faults; that they are changeable, incapable of settling down, unsteady, noisy, inattentive, moody on occasions, sometimes violent. The Good Master who loved to be followed by groups of children, who chided the Apostles' as they were unsuccessfully intent on keeping the children quiet, knew it well.

But what Our Lord wanted to call attention to was the child's uprightness and its capacity for attachment. The child is simple, one might say natural; not at all complex; he is direct, not having learned how to deceive, or cunningly strive for superiority. That is the case at least with the normal child. And besides, the child attaches itself to others easily. Whoever does good to it is its friend; it gives its heart without reserve and with a spontaneity which is one of its greatest charms.

"O Jesus, You ask me to be as a little child, give me its ability for loving, and its straightforward simplicity. And if I must deal with children in my vocation give me the grace to give them what they lack, and to acquire from contact with them what they can give me."
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)