To Believe Like a Child

We were at our monthly Miles Christi Evening of Recollection this past Friday and during benediction a thought struck me. I had Mr. 3 yo on my knee trying to keep him quiet (after 3 hours of trying to keep him quiet, it was getting tough!). Father was just picking up the monstrance to bless us when he started talking again. I told him to be quiet and watch as Father was about to bless us with Jesus.

At that moment, he turned and looked right at the monstrance and we made the sign of the cross together. Just to the right of Father there was a crucifix. Mr. 3 yo leans over and whispers, "There's Jesus, too".

The thing that amazed me then, as it has at other times when my children were about this age, was that, when I told my son that we were about to be blessed by Jesus, he didn't look all over the church trying to figure out where Jesus was. He looked straight at the monstrance and never once asked me why Jesus looked like a circular piece of bread. I like to think that it is the simple innocence of children that allows them to so easily believe you when you tell them that that circle is Jesus. At the same time, he was able to look to his right and also see Jesus in His human form, too.

I guess I love the fact that not one of them has ever questioned me about how a host and a person could both go by the name Jesus. With their simple hearts and trusting minds, they just take it all in and believe that what I am telling them is the truth. I guess that's what it means to believe like a child. Ah, if we could all only have that childlike faith!