KEEP YOUR CHILD ALIVE

Saturday in the 7th Week of the Ordinary Time
Mk 10:13-16

Most of us, if not all, have been taught to pray early in life. It is part of growing up in most families for a child to learn how to pray. Our first “Angel of God, my guardian dear…” was welcomed with joy. When we said our first “Our Father, in heaven…” our parents beamed with pride before our audience. It always warms our hearts to see a little child pray. But the most touching prayer any child can say is the one that comes straight from its own heart, not memorized, traditional prayers, but that which spontaneously flows from the lips. It still is even for adults.

One the one hand, the Lord refers to children in the Gospel today regarding entering the Kingdom of God. St. James, on the other hand, reminds us in the First Reading (Jas 5:13-20) about the power of prayer. What links these two readings for today?

Our prayer is more powerful if we carry a childlike attitude before God. Childlike attitude is one of innate confidence, sincerity, and spontaneity before its parents. We must have the same attitude towards God. He is our Father, did not Jesus say? We are His children. Prayer is our communication, our dialogue, and our chat with our Father.

How do we pray? Do we talk to God with childlike trust? Or as adults, do we approach Him with pessimism or even cynicism that the wounds of our personal history infect us with? Do we listen to God with the heart of a child? Or do we dismiss God as a nice character in fairytales?

No matter how advanced we have become in years, in wisdom, and in experience, before God, who is our Father, we must remain children. We have to maintain an attitude of confidence, sincerity, and spontaneity towards Father God.

How truly blest children are! They may have little wisdom and sophistication but they have so much faith and simplicity. And it is faith and simplicity that opens the floodgates of grace to us.

Be like the little children. Be childlike, not childish though. Be a son or a daughter to God today, tomorrow, and always.