At present we see dimly as in a mirror . . . (1st Corinthians 13:12)
Judging by the attitude of Jesus toward children as cited in today’s Gospel, it seems he would have been delighted with the poet William Wordsworth’s romantic (or sentimental?) evaluation of childhood expressed in his poem Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. There he remembers how fresh his vision was as a boy when meadow, grove and stream, / The earth, and every common sight, / To me did seem / Apparalled in celestial light. I’m sure all of us have memories of our first, astonishing encounter with a dandelion or snow or butterflies or the immense power of a locomotive. Life was full of wonders.
No wonder then, as an adult, Wordsworth laments those later years when the Shades of the prison-house begin to close / Upon the growing boy – how he begins to imitate adults . . . engage in games like cowboys and Indians or in roles of “doctor”, pirate, even priest (I remember at age 10 “saying Mass” at home with a congregation made up of my sister and her friends – communion being one Necco Wafer apiece). Eager to grow up we soon leave wonder behind, so that Wordsworth continues: Turn whereso’er I may, / By night or day, / The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
When Jesus in today’s Gospel takes a child and says Whoever welcomes a child such as this welcomes me . . . and later in Mark’s Gospel says, Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, doesn’t he seem to agree with Wordsworth that childlike simplicity, innocence, wonder, an ever fresh vision of the world should characterize his followers – as opposed to the way his disciples in today’s Gospel compete for seniority, engage in adult politics as usual – never noticing a sunrise?
And yet if we turn to another part of the New Testament we seem to find the exact opposite model – that childhood is something we need to grow out of! For St. Paul in his Letter to the Galatians childhood means school days, disciplinarians, classroom custody. (I remember even in the eighth grade, during a break in class, spreading my forearms on the classroom windowsill and looking out at the passing people and cars on the street – envying their freedom.) It’s like Paul says: the child is under the supervision of guardians and administrators until a date set by his father, ineligible to inherit anything (even equality) until he “grows up”. To Paul childhood seems to mean childishness, immaturity as in 1st Corinthians where he confesses When I was a child I used to talk like a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
So does the New Testament contradict itself? Are Jesus and Paul on the same page – one cherishing childhood, the other anxious for it to be over, eager to grow up? With whom do you stand? Are you inclined toward sentimentality, to recover the innocence (and ignorance?) of Sesame Street or are you eager to grow out of such playfulness, to confront tomorrow, to be ever more conscious, to put on (like a garment) the maturity of Christ? Are Jesus and Paul reconcilable?
But hey! Don’t look at me! I’m out of space. I’m just laying out the apparent difference. I’m leaving it up to you to figure it out, to think about it! It will do you good to think about such seeming biblical enigmas. God knows – we don’t do enough of it!