19. Third Thursday of Advent

Meditations no. 19 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The life of spiritual childhood demands submission of the mind.

In her Advent liturgy the Church cannot contain her joy. The moment is fast approaching when the only-begotten Son of God will be born, sent into the world by the Father to be the first-born among many brethren.

We find ourselves included among the countless children God has deigned to adopt. And who are we, compared to God’s majesty? Before God, who is eternal, you are a smaller child than, in your sight, a two-year old toddler. And besides being a child, you are a child of God. Don’t forget it. Being so small, we should always approach God as little children: Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

To become children on the inside when we are already grown up is a difficult task. This is not nonsense, but a sturdy and solid Christian life. Being childlike, which is an interior disposition, should not be confused with being childish, which implies a lack of fortitude, an absence of any sense of responsibility.

Maturity, sanctity or, as St Ambrose calls it, goodness, does not come from being a child, but from the effort to attain a child’s simplicity, through purification, self-surrender and abandonment. And this is difficult to achieve: Spiritual childhood demands submission of the mind, more difficult than submission of the will To subject our mind we need not only God’s grace, but also the continual exercise of our will which says “no” again and again, just as it says “no” to the flesh. And so we get the paradox that whoever wants to follow this “little” way in order to become a child, needs to add strength and virility to his will.

When years of effort and interior striving - and the grace of God - have taught us to live like children before God, then we have attained spiritual maturity. This will be shown in the way we surrender to his will in all things, and in our docility in following the promptings of his Spirit. It will lead us to pass on to others this outlook, which in the midst of our natural weaknesses, will make us strong in the faith, fruitful in good works and certain of our way.

Abandonment in the hands of God and of the Directors.

Depend on Jesus for everything. You have nothing, are worth nothing, are capable of nothing. He will act, if you abandon yourself to him. To become children we must trust in God’s Providence. St Thomas Aquinas explains that we need to be directed and defended by God who is all-knowing and all-powerful. Ours must be a lively faith in Providence, which leads us to cast all our worries on God because he cares for you, as St Peter says. We need to abandon ourselves in God: he is concerned about everything that is ours, no matter how trivial it may seem, and he watches over us as a vigilant and affectionate Father. As our Lord tells us: even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

And since, by God’s will, our Directors are instruments of his Providence, we need to be docile to them. They have a special grace at all times to show us the way, to help us and lead us towards sanctity. Lord, you are near, and all your commandments are just; long have I known that you decreed them for ever.

We need to have an unshakeable trust in those whom God has charged with our salvation, writes one of the Fathers of the Church. Such abandonment brings great peace. It is achieved, however, only when we leave ourselves completely open to God, breaking down any barriers and defences separating us from his love; and when we strive to obey the Directors in everything related to the divine commitment we have freely taken on. As soon as you truly abandon yourself in God, you will know how to be content with whatever happens. You will not lose your peace if your undertakings do not turn out the way you hoped, even if you put everything into them and used all the means necessary. For they will have “turned out” the way God wants them to.

To reach such abandonment, we must give up all attempts at self-defence, and stop thinking about our own rights and opinions. We must forget about ourselves, putting our soul into the hands of God and of our Directors, who will lead us to him. Thus we die in order to be born again. To become children we must renounce our pride and self-sufficiency, recognizing that we can do nothing by ourselves. We must realize that we need grace, and the help of God our Father to find our way and keep to it. To be little, you have to abandon yourself as children do, believe as children believe, beg as children beg.

Docility in receiving direction for our soul and for our apostolic work.

Abandonment is docility, marked by the simplicity with which a child listens to his teachers. We need to be docile in order to have the necessary flexibility in our behaviour. We need to change our opinions, our resolutions, or our activity, whenever we are so advised, just as a child readily changes his ideas or wishes at his father’s indication. Abandonment is of little or no worth if it does not lead to docility. We ask God to show us how to combine responsibility for any mission that has been entrusted to us, with promptness in following even the slightest indication of the Directors.

Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord’s coming is near. We want to open our soul to his coming. Jesus shows us the way. To reach him, we must become like children. Child, abandonment demands docility. From the very moment of his birth, from the cradle, Jesus gives us an example of docility. He allows himself to be carried and protected by his Mother and St Joseph. And when we go to the manger to adore him, we will find, in the words of St Leo, a silent child, trustingly abandoned to the care of his Mother.

Our Father says: Let’s think about this. It can help us understand some very important things. The mystery of Mary helps us see that in order to approach God we must become little. As Christ said to his disciples: Believe me, unless you become like little children again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

May Mary obtain for us, for the rest of our lives, a total abandonment to God and to those who direct us on his behalf. Such abandonment needs a spirit of simplicity and faith, so that our souls may be wide open to God. Don’t forget that our Lord has a special love for little children and for those who become as little children. When we aim at total and trusting docility to the guidance we are given, in our apostolic work as well as in our spiritual life, we have taken a definite step forward in our desire to become like little children before God.