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During
the mission month of October,
Christians are invited to reach
out, to be childlike.
Jesus invites us to be
childlike, not childish.
To be childish implies
irresponsibility, immaturity and
throwing tantrums if one does not
get one's way.
To be childlike is
something different:
(a)
Cbildren
are bumblepeople.
They are open and ready
to learn.
As children they have not
yet learnt to think in terms of
pride and prestige.
A child is yet to discover
his/her own importance.
What the child will become
later depends on the guidance or
misguidance of adults.
(b)
Cbildren
are generally obedient-it is possible,that
children
can sometinic disobedient but it is also true that the general
instinct of all children is to
obey.
Children as they are, have
not yet learnt the pride and the
false importance that always put
people apart from each other and
ultimately from God
(c)
Cbildren
are people of great trust!
They trust their
parents and their teachers who, to
them, know it all and so they are
always right.
The child is aware of
his/her ignorance and his/her
helplessness and so he/she looks
up to someone who according to
him/her knows better.
Children expect the best
out of the world and they are not
suspicious of it.
Unfortunately some people
sometimes abuse this great trust.
(d)
Cbildren
bave sbort memories.
They do not keep
grudges, or nourish bitterness.
They easily forget
completely to the extent that
forgiveness is not necessary.
So
when Jesus says, 'Unless you
become like little children you
will not enter the Kingdom of
Heaven', he is calling us back to
our lost childhood.
He is calling all of us,
young or old, to be born again in
the innocent character of
humility, obedience, trust and to
forgive and to forget.
With these tools we can
'Reach Out' to others and to the
Kingdom of God.
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