December: Day 20: Holy Martyr Ignatius the God-Bearer

December: Day 20:
Holy Martyr Ignatius the God-Bearer
 
(About the Innocence of Childhood That Adults Should Imitate)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Once the Apostles were arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus Christ, hearing what they were talking about, called a child and, embracing him, set him among them and said: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And whoever receives such a child in My name receives Me” (Matt. 18:2-4; Mark 9:37). Tradition says that the child whom Jesus embraced was the same one who, under the name of Ignatius the God-Bearer, was a disciple of John the Theologian, then a Bishop of the Antiochian Church, and finally was honored to receive a martyr's crown for the name of Jesus Christ. His memory is celebrated today.

II. If the Lord has set up children's innocence as a model, then it means that He has found in it such qualities of soul and heart that every Christian must have in order to be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. What, you may ask, is there in children that adults could profitably learn from them?

a) Their sincerity, simplicity, and frankness are instructive, first of all. A child who has not been spoiled by bad examples cannot lie, does not know how to pretend, does not know secrecy, distrust, or suspicion, says what he knows and what he thinks, does what he wants, praises what he likes, is indignant at what is bad and what has an adverse effect on him, and believes from the bottom of his heart what his parents and elders tell him. Is this not a truly precious quality, which is necessary for us both in our relationship with God and in our relationship with our fellow men, on which the peace of our life, both internal and external, depends? What makes our faith unsteady, our convictions shaky, our spiritual union with Christ the Savior fragile? Lack of sincerity and trust, simplicity and complete devotion to the Lord. On the other hand, why are all social ties fragile? Why do such apparently strong ties as family ties often weaken and break? Again, from a lack of sincerity, trust, and simplicity. Feeling insincerity and falsehood in ourselves, we assume the same in others. Hence mutual distrust, mutual pretense, mutual deceptions and cunning. We do not believe the words of others, because our own lips are at odds with our hearts, and are accustomed to say something other than what is in our minds and hearts. We look suspiciously at the actions of others, because our own actions are often only a mask under which completely different aspirations and goals are hidden. We try to ensure and protect our lives by all means at hand, because, knowing our own selfishness and self-interest, we do not trust either the goodwill or the zeal and brotherly love of others. We envy and plot against each other, because, not feeling sincerity and goodwill in ourselves, we fear the rise and advantage of others over us. And who can count all the kinds of evils from which human societies suffer, all of which degenerate from that insincerity and lies, from that mistrust and suspicion which lie at the basis of our social relations! Truly, if we do not turn and become like children, sincere, simple-hearted, frank and trusting towards one another, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the kingdom of peace and truth, love and unanimity.

b) No less precious in children is that tenderness of soul, that softness of heart, that sympathy for others, by which they are able to merge, so to speak, soul and heart with the soul of others. A child cannot help but cry when he sees tears in his mother’s eyes, cannot help but rejoice at her joy, cannot help but try to do something pleasant for his parents. They will say that this is a shortcoming of age, that it shows the lack of independence of a child who lives not so much his own life as the life of his parents. But are we, my brethren, completely independent, are we not dependent on the all-vivifying, everlasting life of God, on our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who feeds us with His Flesh and Blood, of Whom, therefore, we are, as the Apostle says, “members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones?” Do we not live the life of that society of which we are members? So, if anything, this tender childlike sympathy is necessary for us both in relation to God our Father and in relation to our brethren, the children of the same Heavenly Father.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who has regenerated us by the Holy Spirit, who feeds us with His Body and Blood, shows us, as His children and together with His brethren, the most complete and living sympathy, the most sincere participation in all the circumstances of our life. Is it possible for us to remain insensitive in relation to Him, not to respond to Him with the most living feeling of love? In fasting and prayer and with contrition of heart, the true disciples of Christ remember His saving sufferings: step by step they accompany Him with prayerful reflection from Gethsemane to Golgotha, they bow down with tenderness of heart to every wound of His most pure body, they mourn with heartfelt tears every insult inflicted on Him by the wicked judges and His crucifiers. That is why the day of His resurrection is inexplicably bright and joyful for them, like the day of their own resurrection, and leads their hearts into an indescribable, heavenly rapture. In the same way, there can be no true love for our brethren, members of the Church and society, without living, kindred sympathy for them as our true brethren. What kind of love is this, which fears to see living misfortune in the face of its suffering brother, abhors the mere sight of human poverty and suffering, and is content to throw its mite into the common corban for the poor? What kind of love for mankind is this, which indulges in unbridled joy under the pretext that this is done for the consolation of those who weep, or indulges in gluttony, as if for the benefit of the hungry? “Show me your faith by your works,” says the Apostle; show also your love by real compassion for the unfortunate: take a living part in the sorrow of the afflicted, satisfy the hungry from your own table, share your clothes with the naked, wash with your hand the wounds and sores of the sick. Then you can hope to hear the voice of the Lord who suffered for us: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Inasmuch as you did it for one of the least of these My brethren, you did it for Me.”

III. But we would tire you, my brethren, if we were to enumerate in detail all that can be profitably learned from children. The innocent soul of a child is a whole paradise, fragrant with the fragrance of many different flowers. His immaculate heart is a treasury in which various treasures are hidden. Everyone can take from it for his own needs. Let the angry and irritable learn childish meekness and indulgence, the spiteful and vindictive learn childish meekness and forgiveness, the willful and capricious learn childish submission and obedience, the false and treacherous learn childish straightforwardness and simplicity, the proud and arrogant learn childish simplicity and humility, the overwhelmed by impure passions and lusts of the flesh learn childish purity, temperance and chastity. "Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Amen. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.