283. Thirteenth Thursday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 267 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Abandonment and docility are the means to spiritual childhood.

And getting into a boat Jesus crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed.

This paralytic sets us a good example of docility. Lying there on his stretcher, with an expression of quiet supplication, he is used to being moved around and doing what other people tell him. On being brought before our Lord, he abandons himself completely into his power. He has been eagerly awaiting this meeting, and now that he is face to face with him he doesn’t ask him for anything. He simply looks at him, trusting in his mercy.

Our Lord knows us inside out. He takes everything in at a glance: the malice of the scribes, whose only interest in the scene is to see if they can undermine his authority; and the faith of the paralytic and his companions. All of it lies open to Christ’s gaze.

Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. This is Jesus Christ’s merciful response to us. Our Lord treats us as little children. During the Last Supper his heart was moved at his having to leave the Apostles, and he called them “little children”: very small children of a divine Father.

We need to become children, and touch God’s heart by the trusting abandonment with which we seek him. Our Lord is there in Holy Communion, as he was at the Last Supper, waiting for us as a father awaits his child. We need to become very little in order to be docile and allow ourselves to be guided towards Jesus in spiritual direction. We need to let ourselves be led; to ask to be brought to Jesus, and not put up any resistance. We need to be the ones who facilitate the task of those who guide us, taking good note of what we are told.

We should be docile and confident in the Work, like the sick man who has sought out the people who can cure him and now places himself in their hands. We should trust the person who is leading us along our path to sanctity. By being docile to the advice we are given, we will become children again before God.

Some people could perhaps imagine that ordinary life contains very little that can be offered to God: it’s made up of trifles or worthless things. But small children who want to please their parents give them whatever they’ve got: a lead soldier with its head missing, an empty cotton-reel, a few pebbles, a couple of buttons: everything they value, their “treasures”. And a father doesn’t consider how babyish the present is: he thanks his child for it with the tenderest of hugs. Let’s act in the same way towards God, because these silly little things become great deeds, when our love is great. That is what we are here for, to make something heroic out of the little details of every day and every moment, by our Love.

Spiritual childhood is shown in our daring and enthusiasm.

We must see spiritual childhood supernaturally if we are to understand it. In the loving way in which we offer up ordinary little things, our Lord recognizes our dreams of Love and our thirst for souls. We come to him with the same faith and hope as the paralytic. A sick man is brought to Jesus, who looks at him. Contemplate the scene closely and meditate upon his words: confide, fili - take heart, my son.

This is what our Lord says to you when you feel the weight of your errors: Have faith. In the first place: faith. And then allow yourself to be carried like the paralytic did: with interior and submissive obedience.

The faith of the paralytic and his companions adds a new glow to the enthusiasm that everyone in that crowded house already feels for Jesus. Only the Pharisees are surprised at his forgiving sins. Our Lord sees their thoughts, and tries to help them break out of their narrow-mindedness by saying to them: Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk”?

Jesus Christ heals the paralytic, proving that he really had forgiven the man’s sins; and the fervour of the people around him increases still more. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Joy and supernatural enthusiasm should be part of our life. Piety fills and transforms it all. Our conversation with God - constantly renewed as he constantly forgives our sins and our negligence - has to keep us closely united to our Lord.

This is how little children behave: they stick close to their parents and ask questions all the time, finding matter for astonishment in the most ordinary things. Little things are enormously important to children. If there is anything they cannot do for themselves they don’t worry at all, because their parents can do it for them: nothing mars their happiness. For all of these reasons our Founder recommended us to have the holy shamelessness of a child who knows that his Father God always sends him what is best.

That is why he doesn’t worry when even the apparently most essential things are lacking; and with complete serenity he says: At least I still have the Holy Spirit with me.

Simplicity characterizes spiritual childhood.

Abandonment, confidence, determination, daring, happiness: these are all characteristics of the life of a child. There is one which stands out among all other possible characteristics, one which should never be absent: that of simplicity.

Simplicity is natural to children, because they don’t know the meaning of mistrust. They know that everything is of interest to their father. They know that their father notices everything that refers to themselves, and is sure to make up for their limitations. And so children talk about everything. As St Jerome says, a little child doesn’t think one thing and say another, and we should be the same; if you didn’t have the same innocence and the same purity of intention, you could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Sincerity is necessary to reach this kind of simplicity, which is the salt of perfection. Silly child: the day you hide something to do with your soul from your Director, you have ceased to be a child, for you will have lost your simplicity.

Simplicity is the exact opposite of affectation. It shows in the way we take the place that belongs to us: if that happens to be a good position, socially speaking, we don’t make ourselves feel important; and if it happens to be a modest one, we don’t feel humiliated. Our Lord’s whole life was one of simplicity, as we see in his years in Nazareth and his journeyings with the Apostles.

He then said to the paralytic, “Rise, take up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. We have to be children in order to be able to react like that: to show our defects to our Lord and let ourselves be healed, by obeying whatever we are told, promptly.

Simplicity is the transparency of very small children, who don’t hide anything. Be small, very small. -No older than two years old, three at most. -For older children are little rascals who already are trying to deceive their parents with improbable lies.

It is because they have the wickedness, the fomes or inclination to sin, but they lack the experience of evil, which will teach them the science of sinning, so that they can cover up the falseness of their deceits with an appearance of truth.

They have lost their simplicity, and simplicity is indispensable to be children before God.

Simplicity is the natural consequence of a balanced personality, a soul that is not deformed by any unwholesome peculiarities. People are simple when they are clearly conscious of their defects and don’t try to justify themselves with any false excuses. They are hurt by their own failings, but don’t get unduly upset or scrupulous about them. Neither do they try to overlook them, however small they may be, but count on the help of grace. It is only very small children who can act as naturally as this, recognizing that they have misbehaved, and crying with sorrow when they are scolded, without trying to hide their misdeeds.

You have to feel the urgent necessity to see yourself as small, weak and bereft of everything. You will then clamber onto the lap of our heavenly Mother, with heartfelt aspirations and loving glances, Marian devotions… which are such a vital part of your filial spirit.

She will watch over you.