Childish vs. Childlike Faith
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, in his book
“Called To Be Holy”, writes: “We dread a stale, insipid, childish defensive
faith; we crave a strong, lively, confident, childlike faith.” That statement is included early in the book,
almost in passing, but it stuck out to me greatly. The simple contrast of Childish faith against
Childlike faith spoke volumes to me.
You don’t have to search very hard in
the gospels to find Jesus calling us to be like children:
Luke 18:17
“Amen, I say to you, whoever does not
accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”
Nearly identical statements can be
found in Mark 10:15 and Matthew 19:14.
One chapter earlier, in Matthew 18:3-4 Jesus calls us to become like
children and humble ourselves. In Luke
9:46-48, and then later again in Luke 22:26 He calls for “the greatest among
you be as the youngest.”
These examples could go on and on,
and we’ve heard the gospel readings year after year. Clearly we are to become as much like
children as possible to be assured a spot in heaven. But wait!
Not so fast. We are to become
like children in our FAITH. But in our
thinking…in our actions, we are to avoid childish ways.
This is spelled out in 1 Corinthians
14:20
“Brothers, stop being childish in
your thinking. In respect to evil be
like infants, but in your thinking be mature.”
In Luke 7:31-32 Jesus compares that
generation to children playing in the marketplace. In Ephesians 4:14 we are warned not to be
like infants, who can easily be swayed and deceived by human trickery. In 1 Corinthians 13:11 we are called to be
men, and “put aside childish things.”
In these verses we are warned against
being like children. The difference is
Innocence verse Immaturity. When faced
with evil, hardship, and difficulty, we are to maintain our innocence, our
childlike faith in God, and know that good can come. We must be truly humble, and admit our
absolute dependence on God. Without Him,
we can do nothing, and we must have the childlike faith to know that He loves
us and controls all things.
That being said, we must not let our
thoughts and actions be Immature. Childish thought can tend to be easily fooled
and led astray. It may be drawn to fantasies. We may be led to immaturely believe we can
sit idly, and all of our problems and hardships of this world will disappear
like a sort of magic.
We also do not want to go to the opposite
extreme of childish, immature behavior.
The world believes that everything can be proven, and everything can be
accomplished by and within ourselves.
This is also childish thinking. The
world often scoffs at Christianity in its own misunderstanding…thinking our
faith is a belief in myths. They look at
something they cannot prove, that cannot be proven without faith, and write it
off. The immaturity of thinking you can
learn your way to every answer; with an “If I can’t prove it, or can’t do it,
then it’s stupid” attitude is that of one who has been deceived by the
world. It is as much childish behavior as
sitting idly and not doing anything in the first place.
We don’t want either extreme of those
childish behaviors, but we want an honest, humble faith. It is this Childlike Faith that, while not
necessarily eliminating our problems, alleviates our worries and anxiety. It allows us to fall to our knees instead of
trying to tackle all of the challenges of life on our own. It is this faith that allows us to fall
asleep at night after a horrible day…overwhelming stress at work, burdens of
debt, horrible cancer diagnosis of a child, death of a loved one. We turn to prayer and we turn to God, and
just like a crying child will soon be soothed and drift off to sleep in the
caring embrace of a loving parent, it is our Childlike Faith that allows us to
turn over our anxiousness to God.
The big difference is that the child
will awaken the next day without a care in the world. We must avoid that Childish Faith. We must trust in God and believe in His
desire for our ultimate good, but if we did not awake to a miracle the next
morning, then we must take what we have been given and continue the work
towards good. I remember falling asleep
in prayer the night my daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Without God, without some hint of Childlike
faith that He could alleviate my anxiety, and a further hope that He could
eliminate the cancer, I would have never been able to sleep. The next day, with the tumor still there, I
had to be mature in my thinking, and ask the doctors questions, and sign off on
the tests and surgeries. But just
because there was no cure, I was not given license to pout and throw things and
scream (although that could certainly be understood and forgiven.) Or worse, I was not given license to forget,
ignore, and abandon the situation. Childlike
verse Childish.
Childlike faith requires trust,
admitting dependence, and provokes an encouragement to ask for what we
need. Have a humble, unpretentious
faith! A child receives a gift with
openness, honesty, and unbridled joy.
Receive the good God gives you in this way. Guard against childish doubt and
defensiveness. And in all things,
thanksgiving or difficulty, turn to God.
Philippians 4:6-7
”Have no anxiety at all, but in
everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known
to God. Then the peace of God that
surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Written by: Matt Buehrig
Inspired by: My Wife, who maintains her faith despite the many difficulties
of this world
Reference:
p. 31, “Called To Be Holy”, by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, Copyright 2005
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