The other day I got a text from a childhood friend. He’s done very well in the start-up I.T. world and yet he was reminiscing about playing whiffle ball in my driveway when we were kids. He ended the message with, "I miss those summer days." I thought about this as reflected on Jesus’ words, "...you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike."
Now clearly Jesus wants us to mature as we age, so what does He mean to be childlike?
Today’s Saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, is a role model who can teach us a little about what that means. She was baptized at the age of twenty by Jesuit missionaries in upstate New York. And, it was said that she lived by the motto:
"Who will teach me what is most pleasing to God, that I may do it?"
Saint Kateri’s question revealed a childlike humility as she grew in wisdom. At its heart, is a desire to please God, and a search for the means to do so.
We can follow this example in our daily family prayer, by approaching God with humility and openness and gratitude.
We can be childlike in our simplicity and clarity in how we share our gratitude and needs with God.
Likewise we can place our trust in God’s healing power for our needs and those in our families, with the same trust that as children we placed in our parents.
Saint Kateri’s heart was moved by God when she met missionaries in her town and served them. She was inspired by their devotions to pray with them. The sharing of prayer then led to them teaching her about Jesus and the Catholic faith.
Her soul was filled with joy and love for God and she would later be baptized by a Father Lamberville who arrived to start a new mission.
Let me ask you, can you think of a happy childhood memory? How did you see the world and God back then?
Jesus and Saint Kateri remind us of the need to have a humble and trusting openness to God. A youthful hopefulness, that with God, we and our families will find the way to Heaven.
Lastly, we and our families can manifest the light of Christ at home in our communities, the way that those missionaries did to inspire the faith of a future saint!
If we want to accomplish this, we only need to look to the example of Venerable Patrick Peyton, who promoted the daily family Rosary, as he himself, prayed the Rosary every day.
