14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (06.07.14)
Out of the Mouths of Babes
St. Matthew records an unexplained outburst from Jesus:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”
(11:25) (Gospel for 14th Sunday)
Genuine innocence has the power, some describe as unique, to arrest our attention. What is so captivating about an inarticulate infant’s face? Could it be the pristine innocence we see strongly reflected in the unfathomable depth in the eyes set within the tiny, ever-changing, facial expression?
The listed ‘wonders of the world’ are awesome to behold. The view from the summit of Everest on a clear day; the chrysalis breaking open to reveal the beauty of a butterfly is truly awe-inspiring. Breathtaking as these moments are, they do not compare with the impact on our deepest self of an encounter with genuine innocence. Innocence reaches to the very core of our being, alerting us to our origin as living persons.
Innocence, the absence of corruption, is a state of purity, of wholeness of soul, heart and mind reflecting the perfection that is only to be discovered in God. Human beings cannot be indifferent to innocence because it is the homing beacon for our conscience and free will. People are either attracted by innocence or repelled by it in equal measure. Human response is determined by our predominant, more habitual choice, of God or of Satan.
A loss of innocence should not to be confused with a loss of virginity. In general usage it often is, and the result is confusion!
The loss of virginity is defined as the gaining of intimate sexual knowledge, including carnal, of another. It may or may not involve the loss of innocence. For example, a person who is raped contrary to their will and consent does not necessarily lose their innocence for the crime they suffer is against their will. In respect of their physiological and emotional state they will have lost their virginity and, in the case of a woman raped by a man, a pregnancy may occur.
Nor should innocence be confused with naivety which is defined as a profound lack of experience, wisdom and judgement. Individual culpability may be responsible for the absence of one or more of these qualities in a person.
Matthew also records Jesus giving the Jewish leaders chapter and verse in 21:15-17 for his, apparently spontaneous, outpouring in this Sunday’s Gospel.
“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?”
And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read:
Out of the mouth of children and nursing babies
you have prepared praise for yourself’?”
(Psalm 8:2)
It takes an uncommon skill to tell a convincing story. Nowadays, truth is no longer valued as a virtue and storytelling, deliberately infected with distortion and slander, has become commonplace and even marketable as mass entertainment. Despite this, integrity and innocence are still identifiable, just more rare. Their appearance can uplift the troubled, depressed and distressed as well as help heal the wounds of deception.
Before the spread of writing and later still printing, storytelling was the means of transmitting the Gospels. Less sullied minds then were better able to distinguish truth from falsehood, the more so when what was heard could be seen in the lives of the speakers.
The same is true today, too. There is also the powerful impact of wordless storytelling, the hallmark of Christian martyrs down through the centuries. ‘Actions speak louder than words’ is a respected anonymous English proverb. A leader writer in ‘The Times’ on May 31, 2014 wrote: ‘Across the globe, in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Christians are being bullied, arrested, jailed, expelled and executed. Christianity is by most calculations the most persecuted religion of modern times. Yet Western politicians until now have been reluctant to speak out in support of Christians in peril. …. A Vatican official speaks of 100,000 Christians being martyred every year, more, surely, than at any time in history. We cannot be spectators at this carnage.’
Children are adept at identifying good storytellers. Why? Could it be related to how their own residual innocence can recognize integrity and innocence in a storyteller? Truthful storytellers for children ensure their audience is aware of the difference between what is fiction and what is fact.
A child’s innocence almost compels adults to be truthful in what they say. Once a child loses trust in the truthfulness of its parents, in particular, that breach can leave lasting scar tissue on the relationship.
The birth of a baby within a family suffering bereavement, for example, can be a turning point in that family’s recovery. The advent of untrammeled innocence, as in the birth of a baby, can initiate a critically necessary healing process where adult relationships have been bruised, even violated. It does this by infusing the divine gift of hope to counter the obscuring negativism relentlessly promoted by Evil.
Everyone has the potential to find and come to know God; something that appears to elude some of the most intelligent and so-called clever people in the world. Is this, possibly, the unexplained cause of Jesus’ outburst of praise to his heavenly Father? In his years of public ministry, Jesus was constantly exposed to the negativity of Satan. We sometimes imagine that Satan’s appearance in Jesus’ life is restricted to Jesus’ forty-day fast in the Judean wilderness. Jesus in his earthly life, like us now, had to survive in the alien kingdom of the Evil One (1John 5: 19) on a daily basis. Each outburst of the Roman and Jewish religious leaders against Jesus was, at source, a manipulation initiated by Satan.
The Body of Christ, the Church, is subjected to the same today. How horrific it is that Catholic clergy, in particular, should be hesitant about having close contact with children because of the worldwide abuse of children and vulnerable adults by a small number of clergy. That this abuse remained unaddressed for so long, allowing its spread far and wide, is evidence of the duplicitousness of Evil. Jesus’ own rebuke of Peter – “Get behind me Satan!” (Matthew 16:23) is a reminder that nobody is exempt from the manipulative skill of Satan.
may tell you whether ‘light’ or ‘dark’ – good or evil – holds sway in your life. Your reaction may also tell you how your view varies or is tempted to vary by external influences such as ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Try it for yourself!
Maybe the Lord’s spontaneous acclamation of thanksgiving to his heavenly Father was occasioned by Jesus’ joy at the profound innocence he found in the eyes of a child. Maybe there was relief for him and an uplift of heart in trying circumstances. Which leaves the question, when was the last time you or I gave profound, as opposed to cursory, thanksgiving to God for the signs of goodness which he places strategically alongside our way of the Cross?