Little – be always little! Be simple, poor, childlike.
In this
line of the Little Mandate [1] we encounter the word ‘poor’ for the third time.
We know
children are little in stature, until later in life simple in their needs and
poor in their utter dependence.
The
call to littleness, simplicity, poverty, childlikeness is not a call to change,
per se, externals, rather it is a matter of the heart, of such complete
imitation of Christ, who first came among us as a little child in Mary’s womb
and first visible to us as a little child in a manger; Christ who was little
among us because as St. Paul reminds us: Have among yourselves the same
attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was in the form of
God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He
emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and
found human in appearance, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even
death on a cross. [Phil. 2:5-8]
We can
ask for the grace to be little, simple, poor, childlike through this simple
prayer the nuns taught us as children: Jesus meek and humble of Heart, make
my heart like unto Thine own.
Meekness
and poverty in spirit are two of the blessings in the Beatitudes: Mt:
5:3-12.
That
simple yet powerful pray to the Sacred Heart enables us to enter into St.
Paul’s prayer for us that Christ will: grant you in accord with the riches
of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner
self…..[Eph. 3:16], for our true selves are interior rooted in heart and
soul, for we are essentially little children of our Heavenly Father, sons and
daughters through Baptism in Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
Further
He chooses to be one with those sometimes referred to as ‘little people’: the
poor, outcasts, prisoners, all those, anyone we consider as ‘other, that is,
not like us, so much so we will be judged on how we loved Him or not, cared for
Him, or not, in ‘other’ thus embracing them as one like us: For I was hungry
and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, a stranger and you
welcomed Me, naked and you clothed Me, ill and you cared for Me, in prison and
you visited Me.’ [Mt. 25:35,36].
In his
commentary on Mt.25:31-46, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis [2] teaches how
because through the enfleshment of Christ in the Incarnation none can have God
as Father who does not have Christ as brother and it is therefore impossible
for us to claim Christ as Brother, God as Father who does not see himself
and live concretely as brother of every other human being, with everything that
implies. Such brotherhood tends toward total identification, so that in my
brother I can see only my own flesh……we are children of God, not each by virtue
of his own separate existence, but only in the One Child – so that numerically
we are many children but in mystical reality only One Child – so, too, Christ’s
self-identification with human flesh and the whole human condition makes of all
brothers but one single Brother of Christ, the One Child of God.
Pope
Francis, using the Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us: The parable is
clear and straightforward, yet it also evokes the interior struggle that each
of us experiences as we gradually come to know ourselves through our
relationships with our brothers and sisters. Sooner or later, we will all
encounter a person who is suffering. Today there are more and more of them. The
decision to include or exclude those lying wounded along the roadside can serve
as a criterion for judging every economic, political, social and religious
project. Each day we have to decide whether to be Good Samaritans or
indifferent bystanders. And if we extend our gaze to the history of our own
lives and that of the entire world, all of us are, or have been, like each of
the characters in the parable. All of us have in ourselves something of the
wounded man, something of the robber, something of the passers-by, and
something of the Good Samaritan. [3]
The
Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother, exemplifies living out the call to be little,
simple, poor and childlike by her response to the Archangel Gabriel: I am
the handmaid of the Lord; in her Magnificat prayer: ….He has looked with
favour on His lowly servant. She is silent when the Shepherds, later the
Magi, come to see the Child Jesus, follows with simplicity the Lord’s word
conveyed through Joseph to flee into Egypt and then to return to Nazareth; when
the wine runs out at the Cana wedding she simply points to Jesus and urges the
servants to obey Jesus. Indeed, nowhere in the Holy Gospels does she focus
attention on herself, she simply is present, lovingly present, including during
Christ’s crucifixion, accepting wordlessly to become our Mother and then in
silent prayer is with the nascent Church at Pentecost. She lived a mostly
hidden life with Joseph and Jesus, the hidden life of a widow and of a mother
whose Son left to fulfill His public mission. Had she performed any miracles or
lived a life other than that of littleness, simplicity, poverty with her
childlike heart surely one of the Evangelists would have recorded the miracles.
She was
one with all her brothers and sisters, everyone, in her love and care tending
to their needs, actually living out the Gospel with her life, without
compromise, the Gospel Jesus had gone to preach but which she knew in her
heart.
Jesus
teaches us: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven…..” [Mt. 18:3]
Catherine
Doherty taught this prayer: Lord, grant me the heart of a child and the
awesome courage to live it out.
Prayed
daily, frequently each day, we will have hearts more and more like those of
Jesus and Mary and more and more we will live out littleness, simplicity,
beatitude poverty and be childlike, authentic brother/sister to everyone, that
is to Christ, for like Christ we shall indeed live as children of our Father,
and thus as real persons, true members of the one human family wherein we are,
in Christ, ONE!
The
final word is from St. Paul: I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to
live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and
gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to
preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one
Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all
and in all. [Ep.4:1-6]
[1] http://www.madonnahouse.org/mandate/
[2]
FIRE OF MERCY HEART OF THE WORLD, Volume III; Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis; p.838; Ignatius
Press, 2012 ~ Italics are mine
[3]
ENCYCLICAL LETTER FRATELLI TUTTI OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON
FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP; Chapter Two A Stranger on the Road; para. 69;
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html
© 2020
Fr. Arthur Joseph
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