Faith Like A Child – 365

I remember being in Catholic school as a child and hearing constantly about how everyone is supposed to strive for the faith of a child.  It made me feel special at the time.  I was child, and something in me was so magnificent that even grown ups strived for it.  I always liked hearing those things.  About how Jesus would call the children to him, how children were special to him.

Flash forward a couple of decades and that same idea that used to make me feel so special started to confuse me.  The faith of a child?  How can a child have true faith?  How can we so abandon our intellects and our maturities and come to that same simple understanding?  Why is simple understanding even worth striving for?  Isn’t understanding and sophistication what we should be striving for?

And then I was sitting at Holy Thursday Mass with my six year old last night.  The Tridiuum Services have kind of become our special time, just me and her while Daddy stays home with the little two.

I looked over and saw her praying, her eyes down.  She wasn’t praying that way because it makes her look holy (and incredibly cute.)  Rather, that’s what Jesus asks of her, so that is what she does.

During the homily, she leaned over and asked me for the rosary.  Occasionally I would glance down and see her moving the beads between her fingers, her lips silently moving with the prayers.

On the way home I told her that I admire her holiness.  I told her that I try to learn from her how to be more holy.  Her eyes got wide, and she asked me why I am trying to learn from her.  And I told her it’s because little children have a special faith in God, and that He wants all adults to try to strive to be like them.

And it made me think.  We grown ups of the world have a lot to teach our children about faith.  We have to teach them about Jesus and the Passion and the promises and the responsibilities.

But when it comes to faith, I’m not sure if it is we who should be the teachers.  In matters of faith, I think perhaps we our the ones who need to close our mouths and open our ears and our hearts.

I would never deny the fact that I struggle with doubts and trust and faith.  I still don’t understand exactly how to have the faith of a child.  How to simply trust and simply be and simply rest in the presence of the Lord.

I have three little girls though, and in them, I have been blessed with the greatest of teachers.