The Danger of Childish Attitudes

December 13, 2024 – Friday of the Second Week of Advent

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121324.cfm)

Children are especially favored by God because of their vulnerability and dependence. The affection a child shows and the child’s capacity accept without judgment and pretension, makes a child more open and welcoming. In fact, Jesus would tell us that the Kingdom of God belongs to the children.

Yet, in this particular Gospel today, we have heard another attitude of a child, that can also be present among us adult. This dark side of becoming “childish” endangers our relationships as well as our dependence to God.

Indeed, being “childish” reveals our negative and selfish attitudes. For example, a child can throw up tantrums when displeased and does not get what he/she wanted. This attitude of a child is an unconscious form of control and manipulation.

Being childish can develop into deep seated selfishness in the heart of a person that it would propel us to get what we want no matter how unfair that would be to others. This focuses on personal satisfaction and personal promotion even at the expense of others. Such attitude prevents us to believe and accept other ideas and perspectives because we are so convinced of our own judgments and beliefs. Thus, being childish is also characterized by being indifferent.

This was the very attitude of those who rejected Jesus as well as John the Baptist. And they rejected Jesus because he was unconventional. He ate and drank with sinners. He touched and mingled with the sick and the unclean people. Jesus preached a loving and forgiving God the Father. He too was from Galilee, from an insignificant town called Nazareth. He was not a well-known Jewish scholar and did not come from a rich and influential family. And all of these Jesus became a threat to the status quo.

The very people who were in power like the Chief Priests of the Temple and the Pharisees were already contented with the comfort that they had. They enjoyed power and influence. They too preferred a strict and unforgiving God because it was through that belief that they could advance their self-interest. They used their position in the society to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

Thus, they were against Jesus because he was changing their ways. Their hearts were filled with bitterness, hate, anger and the desire to have more; in other words, they were filled with themselves, worshipping their very selves. This is idolatry.

These were the reasons why they could not accept Jesus or even recognize the presence of God in Jesus. They rejected John the Baptist by accusing him of being possessed by a demon for being different and radical. They rejected and despised Jesus, accusing him for being a glutton and drunkard because Jesus ate and drank with sinners and the poor.

And so when our heart is poisoned with selfishness makes us blind to what God shows us now, “blind” to what is happening around us today. We refuse to see the suffering of others because we tend to only see ourselves. This attitude would also make us deaf to what God is telling us now and deaf to the suffering of others.

The very antidote to this, is the call to be become childlike and to turn away from childishness.  Indeed, the Lord invites us today that we may have the courage and the faith to become childlike who can see and hear God every day in our lives. Hinaut pa.