Spiritual childhood

To be saved, according to Jesus, is to gradually become a child. To the wisdom of the world, this is something completely strange because it implies an inversion of values and judgments. In human life, according to psychology, the secret of maturity (salvation) is in gradually getting away from maternal dependence and any other attachment, until we arrive at complete independence and the ability to stand on our own two feet.

When we keep little we recognize our own nothingness and expect everything from the goodness of God, exactly as a little child expects everything from its father. Nothing worries us, not even the amassing of spiritual riches...

If you do not become like a child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:1-4). Become a child! Children are essentially poor and trusting, trusting because they know that their weakness needs someone else’s strength; in other words, the poverty of the child is wealth. By them-selves, children are neither strong nor virtuous nor secure. They are like the sunflower that is always open to the sun; from there, all hope comes, everything is received from it: heat, light, strength, life...

To become a child, to live the experience of the Abba (dear Father) not only in prayer but most of all in the circumstances of life, confidently surrendering to what the Father wills, all of this seems to be an easy and simple thing to do. But in reality it means the most fantastic change, a real revolution within the old castle built up in self-sufficiency, self-centeredness, and delusions of grandeur.

Extracted from the book “Sensing your Hidden Presence” by Father Ignacio Larrañaga