“In simplicity there is truth.”

"Be demanding of the world around you; be demanding first of all with yourselves. Be children of God; take pride in it!" – Saint John Paul II Czestochowa, Poland, 1991

Gospel Text: (LK 9:46-50)

An argument arose among the disciples

about which of them was the greatest.

Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child

and placed it by his side and said to them,

“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me,

and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

For the one who is least among all of you

is the one who is the greatest.”

Then John said in reply,

“Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name

and we tried to prevent him

because he does not follow in our company.”

Jesus said to him,

“Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”

To become like little children - to be child-like and not childish - requires a change of heart. That is what conversion is truly all about. Such a change of heart will transform the way we live and teach us the way of love. The great Bishop, St. Ambrose, who baptized Augustine, along with his son Adeodatus, on the Easter Vigil in 387, wrote concerning this in a commentary on Luke's Gospel (Lk. 18:17):

"Why is it that children are eligible for the kingdom of heaven? Perhaps it is because, ordinarily, there is no malice in them. They don't know how to lie. They don't lie to themselves. They have no desire for luxury. They aren't drawn to riches. They are uninterested in ambition. But the virtue herein lies, not in what they lack interest in, or know nothing about, but in what they don't want to do. The virtue lies not in their inability to sin, but in their unwillingness to sin."

The way of simplicity and communion, the way of spiritual childhood, are the path to peace. They lead us into an ever deepening, intimate, loving relationship with God, and, in Him, into a new relationship with all men and women and creation itself.