Spiritual Corner - Unless You Turn and Become Like Children, You Will Not Enter the Kingdom of Heaven

I remember I once visited a kindergarten where a group of children came to me to say “hello”, gathered around me, held my legs, laughed loudly and happily. A characteristic of children is that they follow their own instinct without giving too much thought to anything, adults, however, often consider different situations and choose to follow their own way of thinking. Yet God deliberately chooses to stay in our heart but not our brain. To turn and become like children is to follow our hearts, and submit to God’s voice deep down inside us.

We have a great mother, Holy Mother Mary, as the model of obedience to God. The Holy Mother said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” The Holy Mother has always been a model in listening to God with her whole heart! The Holy Mother followed her heart, undoubtedly accepted her mission from God, promised to be the mother of Jesus. According to the Gospel, when Mary heard that her cousin, Elizabeth, had been conceived, she immediately left for the hill country with no hesitation. At the wedding of Cana, the Holy Mother told the servers, “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you.” We can see that the Holy Mother listened to God’s voice, obeyed his will with no hesitation.

Confucius had not actually approved of the idea of looking thrice before you leap. He said to think twice would be enough: the first consideration would be to see if something is good or bad; the second consideration would be to judge whether something is right or wrong. If there is a third consideration, it would be for self interest. When we consider too much, we might not even care to act. Not to consider too much does not mean not to consider thoroughly and not to protect ourselves. It only means that our reasoning should serve our inner heart, and not to let our heart serve our reasoning. Actually, we sometimes cannot put too much trust on our reasoning, Jesus asked, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life span?” Since we cannot, then why do we not trust and rely on God totally, listen to his voice coming from the bottom of our heart? Lastly, let us pray that Mother Mary in heaven would teach us how to listen to God’s voice coming from within our heart. Let us follow our own heart, let us turn and become like children, let us whole-heartedly trust in the Lord.

Yours,
Deacon John Wang