9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
“Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come to Me” (Mt 19:14). As God became
the Son of Man, so men become the sons of God. “You have received the spirit of adoption of
sons.” In becoming children before God, we find the road that leads to Him and to the possession
of Christ’s life and heritage. All true Christianity consists in our being called and being the
sons of God (1 Jn 3:1). A child knows instinctively that it will be well taken care of by its father
and mother. Having experienced no worries, no grief, and no fear of life, a child sees only sunny
skies and is full of hope and expectation of wonderful things to come. A child is satisfied with
what it sees and can lay its hands on; it has a faith that explains and brightens everything. It has
a heaven and a father and a mother; it wants to believe and to pray, to reach beyond itself to
God the Father and to Mary, its mother. A child has faults and weaknesses too, but these, too,
do not cause it great worry. If the father punishes his child, it will be love only that wields the
rod, for he means only well with his child.
“You have received the spirit of adoption of sons.” We are aware of our being children
of God. We therefore stand at the mysterious gates of life without fear and without undue
solicitude. Knowing that we are being taken care of by His love and providence, we leave our
ways and our destiny entirely to the direction of this loving Father. We are resigned to His dispensations,
for we know that they are the work of a loving, well-meaning Father; He does not
permit anything to befall us without having first measured it so that we may be able to bear it.
We are satisfied to be guided along the road He has destined for us, throwing ourselves into the
arms of God, like a child whose only desire is to be carried by its mother that it may rest at her
bosom and be caressed by her. Every desire of the Father, every sign coming from Him, is holy,
is a command to us. Whatever we do, we do to show our love for the Father and our desire to
please Him. We have our faults and behave badly sometimes, but realizing what we have done,
we regret having offended Him. We ask His pardon, and He in His mercy gives us new graces
and new proofs of His love.
“You have received the spirit of adoption of sons.” There is much piety which does not recognize
God with a childlike disposition, which knows only the service of fear, of servitude, of oppressing
and paralyzing anxiety. Who can serve God out of feelings of love if he does not know Him to
be lovable? For this reason even many Christians are cold and tepid toward God, because they
see in Him nothing but the fearful Lord, the Lawgiver and Judge. From this attitude spring
many feelings that are foreign to the usual disposition of children; they are the source of all
listlessness in religious life. The lack of childlike confidence and simplicity is the reason for so
many temptations against faith and the many anxieties that impede a tender devotion toward
God and the spirit of joyful sacrifice.
God wishes us to be as children before Him. He has implanted the gift of piety in
our souls in baptism in order that we may offer Him a childlike disposition of mind. If
we are truly children, we simply believe what He commands, submitting ourselves to His
holy will and commandments. Then we are guided by His divine leadership in all things
with that spirit of faith which lifts us beyond the merely human point of view in our
thinking and judging. Forgetting ourselves, we rest on the heart of the Father, without
worry or unrest, guided by a spirit of love and confidence. Renouncing our own will,
we let Him, the Father, work within us whatever He wills. Placing no obstacles in His
way, we become His children, dying to ourselves in order to be free for His spirit, His
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