Imitatio Christi: Homily for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,

and putting his arms around it, he said to them,

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;

and whoever receives me,

receives not me but the One who sent me.”

This Sunday I would like to focus on the words “one child such as this.” Too often, this phrase is taken to mean that children are automatically models for emulation, that they are naturally pure. But this is to misunderstand Christian teaching.

St. Augustine, in his Confessions, famously points out that even an infant, leave alone a child, is sinful in its desires. “[I] Myself have seen and known even a baby envious; it could not speak, yet it turned pale and looked bitterly on its foster-brother” (1.7.11). Anyone who has been to school, or is involved in the schooling of children, will also know that children can be little monsters, especially towards those who are weak, or perceived as different.

Our Lord, Himself, in fact, offers examples of childhood, and children, that take away from our romanticisation of children and childhood. Listen to these words from the Gospel according to Luke (7: 31-32)

To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are

like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

    we wailed, and you did not weep.’

Our Lord is clearly disapproving of petulant, childish behaviour, and is demanding something more from us, adults and children both.

So, what does it mean, when Our Lord says:

 “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name…”?

The answer lies in the qualifier “such as this” that immediately follows the reference to the child. This is to say, that it is not simply to children that Our Lord is referring, but to a particular quality that pertains to a child.

To understand what this quality might be, let us return to St. Augustine and his reflections on the sinful nature of infants in his Confessions. Somewhat rounding up his discussion on this point he concludes: “The weakness then of infant limbs, not its will, is its innocence.” While the child may possess, as we all do, a will that has a tendency towards evil, its innocence lies in the weakness of limb that prevents it from realising its will.

Weakness, we should remember is a physical characteristic prized by Christian thinkers. Take, for example, St Paul who in his first letter to the Corinthians (1:27) writes:

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

And in his second letter to the Corinthians (12: 9-10) clarifies this point when he writes that Our Lord said to him:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

So, this is what Our Lord meant when he placed his arms around that child! We need to be humble, weak like that child, a dependent who placed all its trust in its parents, just as we, must depend on, and place all our trust in, God Our Father.

This reference to the child can go deeper, however, for Our Lord is also saying that to receive that child is to receive Him. So, there must be some more links between the figure of the child and Our Lord.

These links, my dear brothers and sisters, lie in the virtues that Our Lord was the paragon of. The first and second readings offer lists of the various virtues that Our Lord embodied, and we must strive to embody. Gentleness, and patience, compliance or obedience, justice, and the strength to admonish sinners, and finally mercy.

All of these virtues, brothers and sisters are virtues of the strong, because it takes courage to be gentle and patient in an age when might is right.  It is easy to be patient and gentle when everyone around us is being sweet, but it is difficult to be patient and gentle when people are angry and violent. We must be compliant, or obedient. Obedience is particularly a virtue of the strong, because it requires strength of character to acknowledge our error when we are corrected; especially by those charged with teaching us what is right and wrong. It takes courage be just, and above all, it takes courage to admonish sinners and know that they will come for you with everything they have - even if your admonishment is not in words, but through the example of your life. But the good Christian places his trust in the Lord, and rests in the knowledge that we will not be abandoned, as in the words of the psalm today:

Behold, God is my helper;

the Lord sustains my life.

Strangely enough, dear brothers and sisters, this strength comes to those who are weak in the spiritual sense, that is, those who acknowledge that without God, without the Spirit, they are nothing, and that all good, strength, and courage, comes from God.

It will take time for us, dear brothers and sisters, to cultivate these virtues. Until then let us welcome those in whom we can recognise these virtues, above all the virtue of humility, for in doing so, and in allowing them to correct and chastise us, even if only through their actions, we will be welcoming Christ and the One who sent Him.

(A version of the homily was first preached to the faithful at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda.

Image reference: ‘Vision of St Augustine, detail of the St Barnaba altarpiece, Sandro Botticelli, c.1488, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, via Meister Drucke)