Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned. But you have revealed them to the childlike." - Matthew 11:25

Prayer: Lord, I thank You for the wonder of Your provident plan. That you teach me not only who You are, but who I am as I face the tests, trials, and temptations of life. Help me to trust in You and always chose to live in the truth of who You are. Help me remember that I will be tested and need not fear for You are with me to overcome them and You help me to always remain in Your love. Amen.

Riches Hidden in: Childlike Faith

Today in our opening prayer, we beseech God, "that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects." There are many riches hidden in Christ, for God is a marvelous wonder to ponder, and an even more marvelous being to live "through, with, and in." Some of the marvelous depths of God we can learn about in books, others we can learn about from good and holy teachers, but all of them we can encounter within ourselves through the trustful surrender to God as our loving Father. When we possess childlike faith, we live the truly divine adventure of a lifetime and as we live it, we come to the conclusion, that "I never knew anything lasts forever till I found you." (From Phil Wickham song "Till I found You). That God alone suffices.

One who has childlike faith is as free as a child who loves adventure, who looks forward to each new day trusting that their parents will love, guide, and protect them. Childlike faith asks questions, seeks to know, and loves the moment. Childlike faith is not a childish tantrum, or someone who fails to share, closing down and clinging to "anchors" that cause us to cease to grow. A person with childlike faith has interior freedom. The freedom and delight such as flying a kite on a beautiful afternoon.

The best illustration for what I mean by interior freedom I found expressed in watching a time-lapse film of a painter. They were extremely gifted and seemed to be able to paint anything. They began by setting the scene on the edge of a forest opening up into a field. They painted what seemed to be a late summer, beginning of fall. As they painted you could see the leaves changing colors, the trees and the leaves that they started with in the painting, they now painted over to express the changing of colors, then as the painting changed the leaves began to fall to the ground. On another day they felt like painting in a snowfall, and then they painted in the snow melting. In this time-lapse film watching the canvas was like watching an animated film being created and vanishing before your eyes. After the snow melted, the leaves continued to fall. And throughout these changes to the trees and the leaves and the landscape itself, woodland creatures came and left the canvas. Birds flew in and flew away. Squirrels, chipmunks, mice foraged and scurried away. A moose sauntered through, then a bit later two wolves perhaps trailing the moose came and went. A hawk flew through the opening in the forest and then the hawk was gone. In the end the sun began to set and finally with that the artist put the canvas of that painting to rest.

For me as I watched at first, I was puzzled, that is a beautiful painting why not stop there? Why have these creatures be painted in and then painted out, to move through the painting over the days and months of this artists work? But then I began to realize that this painter was truly free, they painted for the love and adventure of painting. To let their skill come to life. And that same freedom is what I see in the hidden richness of having a childlike faith.

Opening up to God in prayer the first thing in the morning, thanking God for a new day, a new adventure, being grateful that I am His son and His priest. Pondering over what He will bring into my life this day, rejoicing in it, rejoicing in Him. Then the heart unified with God, abiding with Him, we begin to experience a life as dynamic as the canvas of the painter. God produces richness after richness. We thank Him for that and continue to savor not just the moment, but God Himself. We trust that there will be more, and more, and ever more with Him. Our experience from moment to moment might not be as romantic or peaceful as the canvas I described. Some days might be like what we read about and hear proclaimed in the Gospel today. Jesus lives and exemplifies this childlike faith. He allows His heart, His entire being to be moved by the spirit into the desert. In the end He finds that He was there for 40 days (that is 960 hours, or 57,600 minutes, or 3,456,000 seconds) where He lived in the love of His Father with the Holy Spirit. His experience was that He was tempted by Satan, but His freedom was in the truth of God as revealed and spoken in God's word. No matter what temptation confronted Him, Jesus never deviated from the truth and the life of God within Him.

We also hear that "[Jesus] was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to Him." We can trust He saw the beasts, but we don't know if He saw the angels, or if they ministered to Him like they daily minister to us. God's care for us is marvelous. In the end we learn from Jesus's experience that we too may experience temptation, but we can overcome them and do not have to be discouraged. We can still live the richness of childlike faith by living in God and by His truth and love. We can know the hidden riches, hidden in us in Christ.

May God richly bless you!

-Fr. Jeremy