Spiritual childhood relevant in our complicated times

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

“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.’” (Mt 18,1-3)

Definitely, these words of Christ are a call for us to live what is known in spiritual literature as spiritual childhood. We may already be an old person with a lot of knowledge and experience, but we should not forget that we ought to be always humble and simple like a little child if we want to maintain our true dignity as children of God, capable of entering heaven.

Especially nowadays when things are quite complicated and confusing, this spirit of spiritual childhood will protect us from being swallowed up in our now chaotic world. It would help us keep clearly and strongly what the essential things in our life are, what the real purpose of our life is. It will help us to stick with God always rather than be entangled in our earthly things.

It’s also when we are simple and humble as a child that we would attract God’s loving care for us. In this regard, let’s always remember what Christ said once: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” (Mt 11,25)

We cannot deny that nowadays there are many things that can grab and steal our attention and can hook us into the dynamics of self-indulgence. There are just so many distractions that can ultimately lead us to our destruction. We truly need to be most discerning in the way we handle things, because they either give us good openings and opportunities or lead us to take sweet poisons.

And the secret is always to be closely united with Christ with whom we can put ourselves properly guarded. With him we would know what really comes from God and what comes from something else.

Let’s always remember that evil cannot stand on its own. It will always need the cover of something good to inject us with its toxin. We need to be clever, as Christ himself told us, without losing our innocence. (cfr. Mt 10,16) We should not be naïve. That is why we have to be most discerning of the spirit behind each thing that we handle and each event that can take place in our life. There is a good spirit and a bad one.

When we are with Christ, we would always be prudent in the use of things in general. There is always an element of detachment and of keeping distance even as we immerse ourselves in the things of the world. This detachment is for us to see if we are doing things according to God’s will and not being swallowed by the dynamics of worldly forces that can be very engaging and irresistible.

Let’s be wary always of the danger of self-indulgence that is clearly becoming widespread. There is a slippery slope toward it. For example, we can start going to the Internet for the legitimate purpose of getting information that we need. But along the way, we get distracted by something else that can appear to us as interesting.

We take a bite, and then another bite, until we fail to realize that we are already getting entangled and hooked. It is like being hijacked. We lose our sense of direction, and before we know it, we would already have forgotten why we went to the Internet in the first place.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com