Listening and Loving

Jesus insists that the little children can come to Him. He is available to them just as much as He is to the adults, much to the shock of the adults surrounding Him. Jesus then asks those shocked adults to consider how these children have qualities the adults are lacking. “Whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” As I pondered the qualities a child has, the Holy Spirit drew my attention to an aspirational prayer in a Mass journal I have.

Breathe in: Give me ears that listen

Breathe out: and a heart that loves

I found myself considering how these two motions, listening and loving, are foundational to the childhood experience and are both crucial to accept the Kingdom of God.

First, we have to listen. As children, our first experience of the world is sound. Even before we are born, babies can hear the sounds of the world outside of their mother. A young baby, days old, can barely see a few feet beyond themselves, but their hearing is perfect. They soak in sounds, language. We learn to speak first by hearing it. “At birth, the infant brain can perceive the full set of 800 or so sounds, called phonemes, that can be strung together to form all the words in every language of the world” (Patricia K. Kuhl, How Babies Learn Language, 2015). This is incredible! We have such a huge capacity for language, both to listen to and speak, as small children that fades as we grow more set in our ways as adults.

Simultaneously, babies are learning about what it means to be loved, to be cared for. They are completely reliant on their parents to love them. To love someone, to will the good of the other, is foundational for a child. As the child grows, they come to consciously perceive this and begin to freely offer that love back to their family. At lunch a few days ago, my three year old looked up and said, “Mommy, I love you. The next day, I will love you still.” It was spontaneous and spoken from his heart.

Jesus wants to speak to us. He does so in the language we understand with our ears through the people He has placed in our lives. He also speaks to our hearts, in the language of love. These two practices, listening and loving, are beautiful lessons we can strive to grow in while we seek to become more childlike in the eyes of God.

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